The misadventures of the necromancer

Chapter XXXII

A scream echoes, but Adar doesn’t know if it’s what woke him up or if it was someone grabbing and lifting him. He’s still not fully awake, and what he drank the previous night isn’t helping.

After the troubled conversation with Nero. When they arrived at this village, Adar found no better solution than to drown his sorrows.

“Bastard.” Adar hears someone say. But, before he can react to the comment, he’s punched in the stomach.

“Stop. It’s better to take him to the center of the village.” A new voice says.

“We should finish off this murderer right here.” Adar hears.

Hearing the word "Murderer." his brain starts working again, and a terrible idea comes to him. Had he, under the influence of alcohol, talked about the events at the inn?

As Adar holds his aching stomach, It’s hard for him to understand what is happening. Somewhere, someone starts crying, “My girl!”

This, only adds to his confusion.

He tries to say something, “I…” but a fat boy, possibly a bit younger than Adar, appears in front of him and shouts. “Shut up, you bastard.” immediately punching him in the face.

While he is falling to the ground. He recognizes this voice as belonging to the person who had punched him in the stomach.

“Stop that, and grab him.” says a voice from his side. Where he feels someone grabbing him and forcing him to stand up. Looking there, he sees a bearded middle-aged man pulling him up. Just by the strength of the grip, Adar knows immediately that this man is strong and that trying to resist him would end badly for him.

The boy, in turn, grabs his free arm, saying, “Okay.”

They start to guide him in a direction that he can only presume leads to the center of the village. For some reason, as he starts walking, the thought occurs to him that when Nero sees this commotion, he will be furious that Adar has opened his big mouth. As such, Adar is in serious trouble; he can’t even guess the necromancer’s reaction to this fiasco.

As he walks, he hears behind him, “What do we do with Tamara?”

“It’s better to take her to the village too.” someone declares.

Hearing this conversation, Adar remembers meeting a girl named Tamara yesterday. Immediately, the image of a pretty girl serving him while asking why he was so downcast appears in his mind.

This forces him to look back, where he can barely see a group of people surrounding an older woman who is crying while holding someone lying on the ground.

His confusion about what’s happening increases, and he tries to ask the bearded man, “What’s going on?”

But the fat boy answers instead, “As if you didn’t know.”

But Adar really has no idea what’s happening. All he remembers is drinking and talking with the girl. Venting, about how he feels mistreated by Nero, and how Seres is a fool who doesn’t understand the dangers they’re facing. Meanwhile, Tamara just listened and asked about his travels.

“Don’t even try, we know what you did.” Says a voice behind them.

But what could they be talking about? The only thing that comes to mind is the events at the Silver Cutlery. And even though what happened there was horrible, it was in a place very far from here. Their reaction makes no sense.

For a moment, the image of the woman hugging the body comes to his mind again, and he starts to feel even more worried. Did something happen?

As they weren’t very far from the village center, they arrived there shortly. They stop right in front of the village inn, where he and his companions had decided to spend the night. Seres had volunteered to spend the night in the stable with the mule to keep people away from the creature, using the excuse of guarding their merchandise. Something ridiculous, since the mule didn’t need help, guarding anything.

Thus, Nero took the opportunity to sleep in a room, while Adar, to his misfortune, decided to get drunk.

In front of the inn was a group of villagers. As they approached them, the person behind Adar declared loudly, “We found Tamara.” Some faces showed relief until the voice continued. “Unfortunately, the worst has happened. But we caught her murderer.”

Faces turned to expressions of terror and fury as they looked at him. For a moment, his confusion continued until he started to understand what was happening. They thought he had killed the girl.

“What?” two voices said at the same time. One was his own, expressing the total confusion and fear, he was feeling. The other was Seres, who chose that moment to emerge from the crowd in front of the inn.

“We found Tamara’s beaten body. And this guy was right next to her.” Declared the bearded man beside him, gripping Adar’s arm even tighter while shaking it.

Hearing what they said, Seres looked at Adar. Adar could see the confidence in his friend’s eyes. Seres shook his head with an expression indicating that Adar shouldn’t worry.

He quickly turned his back on Adar and ran inside the inn. For a moment, Adar was confused by his friend’s action until he looked at the angry faces of the growing crowd with more and more villagers arriving. He concluded that Seres had made the wisest decision and had gone to fetch Nero.

At this moment, the only way Adar saw to get out of this situation was with the help of the powerful necromancer. He doubted he could explain anything to this group of furious people, some of whom had started calling him names. Only a demonstration of the necromancer’s power could keep them under control, and even then. Adar feared the situation wouldn’t end without loss of life.

And Adar preferred that one of those lives not be his.

Out of nowhere, a strange silence spread through the crowd. Looking back, Adar discovered the reason. On a wooden plank came Tamara’s body.

When the body passed by him, he could see the marks on what had been her beautiful face. Someone had violently assaulted the poor girl. He could also see how her dress was torn in several places, with parts of her chest exposed.

Behind the body followed the weeping woman who had previously been holding the body. Beside her, supporting her, was a tall man starting to go bald.

The body was taken to the middle of the crowd, where it was finally laid on the ground. The people around stared at her. If he had thought the people seemed furious before, he now didn’t know how to describe them.

Finally, to his great relief, Nero emerged from the inn, followed by Seres.

Nero, in his usual ragged clothes, stretched and said, “Damn, I was sleeping so well. Do you know how long it’s been since I slept in a bed?”

Adar could hear murmurs around him saying. “His companions.”

Without any doubt, people trying to inform their friends about what was happening.

With all eyes on him, Nero finished his stretch and looked around, asking, “So, what’s going on?”

Adar recognized the innkeeper who had received them yesterday, as the person that stepped forward to speak. “Your companion just killed one girl from our village.” He said, pointing to the body on the ground.

After hearing the man speak, Adar recognized him as the one who was behind him while he was escorted to the village.

Nero, in turn, spent some time looking around, studying the crowd until he focused on the body. Then he put his hands on his hips. In the tense silence that settled over the crowd, he declared. “So, do you need help stringing him up?”

Having said this, he looked directly at Adar. Making Adar swallow hard. Because Nero’s eyes were rigid and inflexible, he wouldn’t be able to count on the necromancer for help. In fact, he might be the most terrifying person here.

“Stringing him up?” asked an unknown voice from within the crowd.

Hearing this, Nero stopped looking at Adar and instead looked around at the crowd itself. Before responding hesitantly. “Yes. You’re going to hang him, right?”

There were murmurs in the crowd as people reflected on the question. They hadn’t thought about it before. The villagers were angry but hadn’t yet considered how to punish Adar.

“Well, you can always decapitate him, but it’s a bit morbid with all the blood.” Nero continued, seeming to think about the situation himself.

This made the crowd talk among themselves even more.

“You were planning to execute him, right?” Nero asked now. “Because this is a homicide. And don’t get me wrong, but this is a small village. I doubt you have the means to put him to forced labor or something like that.”

The crowd, spoke even more among themselves, revealing their confusion about the conversation. After all, who would have expected that the person managing Adar’s punishment would be one of his companions?

On the other hand, more and more voices were agreeing with Nero. To Adar’s horror, they thought he should be hanged.

“Nero!!!” shouted Seres, who had been listening to the conversation, becoming increasingly agitated and looking around in horror. “You know Adar didn’t do anything, right?”

Nero looked at Seres and said calmly and coldly, “Blondie, you know. That I’m the last person to believe in the innocence of one of you guys.”

“But…” Seres tried to argue. But both he and Adar knew what the necromancer was talking about and how considering his own experience. It would be very difficult to convince him. After all, the two were involved in an attempt to kill the necromancer.

To Adar’s misfortune, Seres had brought their most ruthless judge. No help would come from Nero; Adar was lost. Thinking this, his legs almost gave out, and he would have collapsed to the ground if not for being held by his captors.

“Besides, you can’t think all these people would accuse an innocent man. Your friend was caught, and this time he has no escape.” Nero continued explaining to Seres who was at a loss of words.

Nero seemed to have clarified things for Seres and moved to the side of the body, which once again had the woman crying beside it, continually repeating, “My girl, my girl.”

Nero knelt beside her. “For my contribution in bringing this man here. I can only apologize.”

But the woman seemed unable to understand what he was saying, remaining the same.

Nero, for his part, stayed focused on looking at the body of the poor Tamara. He adjusted her dress a bit. Before taking her hand to declare, “I’m sorry for what happened to you.”

And looking at the hand he was holding, he gave a sad smile before saying, “You were a very brave girl, and I promise you. Justice will be done.”

Nero then stands up and goes to the innkeeper, asking him with an intrigued expression. "Just to calm that fool down." Indicating Seres with a nod of his head as he continues speaking. "How did you figure out that Grumpy is the murderer?"

"We found him next to Tamara." the innkeeper replies, looking seriously at Nero. Nero starts scratching his face, appearing to ponder what he has been told.

"The girl has been dead for some time. You think he attacked her and then just lay down beside her?" Nero's face and voice show incredulity, giving Adar a glimmer of hope. Perhaps he doubts the story. But before Adar can declare his innocence and explain what happened, Nero shrugs and speaks again.

"Strange, but possible. I've heard of similar stories."

After this devastating comment, Nero walks directly towards Adar. Seeing him approach, Adar tries to explain. "I'm innocent. I swear..."

Nero simply raises a hand, signaling for him to be quiet before he speaks.

"I don't care. Strip."

Adar doesn't know how to react to this. Especially, considering the strange order given by Nero, and in such a calm voice, as if nothing unusual was happening.

Nero comes even closer and, in the same calm voice, says, "Grumpy, I know you're anxious with all these people here. But if I were you, I'd think hard about whether you really want to make me repeat myself. There's something I want to see, so strip."

Thus, Nero effectively repeats his strange order. His voice remains calm but takes on a harsher tone.

And since Adar has no doubts about who the most dangerous person here is, he starts to take off his robe. It's not easy, given that the bearded man remains holding him.

In the midst, of this all the confusion. The fat boy has already let go of him, but the man still holds him, though not as tightly.

The crowd around can only watch what they must consider a strange spectacle. Looking at their faces, Adar can see their clear confusion.

With difficulty due to the man's grip, Adar manages to uncover one arm and most of his torso. Before he can ask the man to change where he holds him to remove the rest, Nero, who has been observing him closely and carefully, speaks.

"Alright. Extend your hands like this."

He extends his hands, palms down and fingers spread. Not understanding what is happening, Adar does his best to follow his instructions.

When he positions his hands as directed, Nero grabs one of his hands and examines it closely, turning it to see the palm. He carefully studies each finger, then repeats the process with the other hand.

Finally, he says, "Not a mark." And looking directly at Adar's confused face, he orders, "Get dressed."

Adar obeys, not knowing what to make of this. And he doesn't seem to be the only one. Nero also looks pensive as he scratches his head and glances around, at the murmuring crowd.

"Hey. Didn't he have a bag?" Nero asks loudly, seemingly struck by an idea.

"Yes, he did. Why do you want it?" the bearded man responds.

The only answer he gets from Nero is an outstretched hand, waiting for the bag Adar hadn't even realized he'd lost.

Seeing Nero's stance, the bearded man looks at the fat boy and nods for him to give the bag to Nero. They must think, the bag's contents belong to Nero. Which, considering it holds some coins they received as change and a potion Nero made, isn't incorrect.

Nero takes the bag and immediately opens it, taking out the healing potion he had given Adar. He spends a few moments studying the vial.

Then, suddenly, he looks seriously at Adar and says. "Roll up your pant legs."

Adar almost feels calmer hearing Nero's strange orders. Nero being odd was something to be expected; he had gotten used to it recently. And it's certainly better than him consulting the mob on how best to execute Adar. So he sighs and obeys.

So, in front of a crowd likely thinking they're watching a pair of lunatics, Adar rolls up his pant legs while Nero crouches to see his legs better.

"Here it is," Nero declares as he grabs the leg where Seres's undead ferret had scratched him. He even ran a finger over the scar.

In an instant, Nero leaps up through the bag to Adar and turns to face the crowd.

"Hey, are you messing with me? This fool is innocent." He exclaims loudly and exasperatedly, pointing his thumb at Adar behind him.