Necromancer Survival

Chapter 327

T.W. Gore

The chilly air hit me first.

The air in the house was cold enough to suck the heat out of my body, as if the heating had been turned off for quite some time. That wasn’t all–when I looked out of the window, I could only see a shining moon. Perhaps the sun had already set.

I could clearly see the disrupted state of the room through the large window, but that didn’t mean I understood this situation. I had completed these [Vengeful Ghost Contracts] several times, but I had not once woken up to this.

Above all…

‘…Have the servants ever left me alone like this?’

An ominous feeling swept over me, so I stumbled to my feet. But, soon, I felt a sharp headache and fell back onto the bed.

“Nngh…”

Yet again, I seemed to be hampered by a rapid decline in physical health following each [Vengeful Ghost Contract].

Clank, Crash–!

“……!”

The walls of the house shook; I heard something in the living room shattering.

I was so startled I momentarily forgot about my headache and propped myself up. There was something strange happening, and I suspected I wasn’t alone in the house.

‘Are the servants gathered in the living room?’

I swallowed dryly and leaned towards where the living room should be, trying to listen for any stray noises. At the same time, I looked around the room I woke up in…This time, with an eye for detail.

“What the…”

I didn’t notice earlier because I was distracted, but when I scrutinized my surroundings, my sense of disharmony and unease grew.

First things first: the light on the ceiling was half-broken with the inside mechanisms clearly visible. The door was cracked, and about a quarter of the wood was torn off.

When I peered through the gap into the living room, I could see that the decorative cabinet that Lackey liked was smashed and flipped upside down. When I saw that, I felt that the situation was more unusual than I first presumed.

That dresser was very big and heavy; on top of that, Lackey enjoyed playing inside the drawers, so I purposefully fixed it to the wall. The fact that the dresser was overturned meant that something with the power of a strong earthquake must have come through.

However, the large window connecting the living room and the terrace was still intact. Come to think of it, the deafening crash I heard earlier was quite strange as well.

Eventually, the name of the person who could quell my anxiety popped out of my mouth, “[Seo Dawon].”

“……”

“[Seo Dawon]…?”

However, the Mage did not materialize even though I had called his name several times.

I despaired for a moment but tried to stay calm as I turned on the system notification window. There must be a reason why I couldn’t summon the Mage.

And, as I expected, I had received an alert informing me that summoning was currently impossible. The system gave me an incomprehensible explanation for the cause.

[You are unable to summon your Servants at this time.]

[You are currently exposed to a powerful debuff cast by a High Priest.]

[There is a ‘Location Hunt’ curse targeting you and this location. This will last for the next 22 hours, 38 minutes, and 12 seconds.]

[It seems you have curried the hate of an enemy that is effective against your attribute…]

[Hopefully, this will not be our last piece of advice, but if you regain consciousness, we recommend you leave this place quickly.] ¹

“…What?”

Boom–!

As soon as I checked the system messages, I heard a tremendous boom, and the whole house began to shake.

I lost my balance and collapsed; I quickly raised my head, but a light–so bright I could not open my eyes–burst into the living room. I was blinded as if my face had been hit by a flashlight’s gleam.

However, that wasn’t the problem

“Choi Lee-kyung…”

“……!”

A voice that should not have been heard came from beyond the door.

It was Bae Jaemin.

“……” I stumbled back instinctively. However, the sounds of the footsteps became slowly but surely louder.

Standing in front of the door, Bae Jaemin cast a long shadow. From my perspective, I could not see what sort of expression he was making due to the white light in his hand. However, my hair stood on end from the intense bloodthirst I could feel from beyond the door.

My teeth clattered from fear; Bae Jaemin asked me from beyond the broken door, “Where is Ryu Hyerin?”

“……!”

When I gave no response, Bae Jaemin reached out through the cracks in the broken door. Where his hand touched, the thick wooden door began to crumble and fall apart like dust.

After the door fell away, Bae Jaemin slowly approached me. The wreckage underneath his sneakers shrieked–crunching and breaking. “Why aren’t you answering?”

“……”

“She’s still alive, right? We’ll need to negotiate, after all.”

“……”

I looked up at the Priest–once again, no answers given.

He stared back through disheveled hair, his usual eyepatch discarded. For the first time, I could see that eye. The bones supporting the eyeball had sunken in; the socket strangely resembled an empty skull.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that startled me. He had chapped lips and a rough beard… As if he had been wandering alone for several days.

“Answer me!” As soon as Bae Jaemin noticed me observing him, he grimaced unpleasantly and slammed his fist into the wall. As soon as his fist touched the wall, the material crumpled before his might.

When I saw him, I realized he couldn’t control himself because he was such a nervous wreck. To my surprise, even a shameless, horrible person like him held someone dear.

“Obviously… She’s dead. She did something to deserve death.”

“……”

“You…must have expected that, right? That’s why you’re like this…” I was overwhelmed by intense emotions and cursed like never before at Bae Jaemin.

To be honest, if I wanted to escape this situation, I should have bought time by lying and claiming Ryu Hyerin was alive… However, when I saw Bae Jaemin’s teary eyes, I couldn’t hold back.

“…Hilarious. You did…You did something like that, and still…” I said.

“……”

“Did you think you’d have a ‘happily ever after’? Seriously? You trash bastard…”

As soon as I finished speaking, Bae Jaemin’s expression scarily disappeared; his face blanched. His lips opened for a moment, but no sound came out…As if he had forgotten to breathe.

I couldn’t insult him anymore. Though the Priest said nothing, a terrible, suffocating aura emanated from him.

He lowered his head, an incomprehensible emotion plaguing his face. Bloodthirst continued to pour out.

However, he soon stumbled over to me slowly, one step at a time. Then, he slowly bent down on one knee.

I closed my eyes tightly as Bae Jaemin reached out. Unexpectedly, there was no pain; it felt as if his cold fingertips were gently caressing my cheek.

Of course, that tenderness only lasted for a brief moment. I screamed as terrible pain bloomed–as if my left eye had caught on fire. “Arrghhh!”

The smell of burning flesh accompanied by losing one’s vision on one side came as a huge shock. I scratched at Bae Jaemin’s arm in an attempt to free myself, but Bae Jaemin kept holding his hand there… Until he removed something steaming hot from my head.

I crawled on the ground to run away from the Priest. However, Bae Jaemin’s loud and melodious voice reached my ears.

“[Holy Repair].”

“Ahhhhhh!!!”

Simultaneously, even worse pain bloomed where my eye had been. It was as if something was embedded into my brain and grew while absorbing everything around it, sucking all the moisture into the socket.

It continued to expand, scraping all the way down to my brain. Unable to bear the pain, I tried to scratch a hole into my eyes with my fingers, but my attempt failed as the Priest stepped on my arm.

Bae Jaemin smiled cruelly as he looked down at me, who was foaming at the mouth. “If I pluck and regrow it several times, I’m sure you’ll go crazy quickly…”

“Nnngh…”

“I’m looking forward to it–to see how much you can endure.”

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TL: There’s a lot we could talk about: the system’s weird af sentience, Lee-kyung’s honestly amazing talk backs to Bae Jaemin, and the horrifying torture that is plucking and regrowing someone’s eye….but…

…Oh my god, Lackey is so baby. Playing in dresser drawers sounds exactly like something my kittens would do.