The Necromancer Commands Slaves, Not Undeads

13 – Human-Faced Lion Manticore (2)

The mercenaries took down the runaway slaves, except a few, the fleeing slaves were all met with death by cold weapons.

The sight of the dead slaves was horrendous.The sight of severed heads, spurting blood in gruesome arcs, was reminiscent of a scene from a nightmare.

Entrails spilled out from knife-inflicted wounds… Unless one was a psychopath, this was not a scene anyone would want to see.

However, I felt no remorse or guilt towards them. They had threatened us, and attempted to kidnap Dorothy.

If they commit wrongdoing, I believed they should endure the inevitable repercussions.

I turned my gaze to the mercenaries.

The mercenaries who had cut down the slaves had quickly raced to where Dorothy was fleeing.

Dorothy had successfully regrouped with the mercenaries. They were taken aback when they saw the state of the bear.

“It’s glowing… why is that?”

“Hey, look over there… It lost its eyes.”

“What the-? There are signs that it just got stabbed by a knife?”

The mercenaries, gazing at the bloody blade Dorothy held, wore expressions of disbelief. Then they chuckled and asked Dorothy.

“Kid, was this your doing?”

“Hey, no way. What can such a young girl do…”

Just as Dorothy was about to retort, the black wolf stepped forward, displaying its fangs at the chattering mercenaries.

“Aggh!”

Dorothy looked up at the black wolf. The wolf started walking towards the glowing bear.

“Be quiet and stay back. It’s best to face such a massive, glowing beast alone.”

Brushing off the blood, he gripped his greatsword with both hands.

“I’ll handle this.”

As the wolf finished speaking, he darted forward.

Nobody dared approach the charging bear, who was over 4 meters tall.

The black wolf was experienced and cold. He managed to get close to the rampaging bear, who was indiscriminately destroying everything around it.

He kept a watchful eye on the bear, which was gradually getting exhausted from the rampage, and patiently waited for an opportunity.

And then the bear showed a moment of vulnerability. The black wolf did not miss this golden opportunity and swiftly slashed through the bear’s flesh with his greatsword.

The blind bear, forced to rely on its remaining senses, swung its paws in the direction of the enemy’s attack…

But such clumsy and slow attacks could never reach the black wolf.

From then on, it was the sight of the black wolf dicing up the bear with its greatsword.

Eventually, the huge bear, as resilient as its size, fell. With a heavy thud… the massive 4-meter beast met its end.

“Phew…”

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, the black wolf looked at the fallen bear.

Even though the bear had lost both of its eyes, he managed to kill a creature with such an enormous body and swift speed as if he was playing with a kid.

Applause and cheers for the bear-killing wolf echoed among the mercenaries.

“Surely, he’s the leader!”

“If Bard had seen this, he would have composed at least three songs!”

He raised his hand to quiet the cheering crowd. The black wolf looked at the pile of slave corpses.

“It’s fine to celebrate, but we have some work to do before that.”

“Right. First, let’s try to find out why they needed Dorothy and why they attacked.”

I chimed in, staff in hand, and walked in that direction.

Most of the slaves were dead, but there were a couple still alive. They lay face down, shaking and begging for mercy.

As I walked towards the surviving slaves, Dorothy followed, casting stealthy glances my way.

I had something to say to her. I spoke decisively.

“Dorothy, that was really dangerous just now.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry…”

“Next time, be more careful. We only have one life.”

“I’m sorry…”

I solemnly warned her. Dorothy bowed her head and was quite.

I gave a small sigh and pat her head in consolation.

“But you’ve gotten stronger. You’ve done well in the past 2 weeks.”

I patted Dorothy’s head. For a complete newbie, her movements were far from ordinary.

Maybe eventually, she could make a living as a mercenary or a guard. Such were my thoughtsThe translation:

They heard it.

Upon hearing the story, Dorothy smiled as if she was pleased.

We moved towards where the subjugated slaves were.

I looked down at the slaves who were kneeling amongst the bodies. They were trembling with fear-stricken expressions.

“Can you raise your heads?”

I spoke softly. At this, the slave raised his head and seemed quite flustered as he looked at my face.

In my right eye was a pupil. When they saw the spider web imprinted in my right eye, none of them dared to even ask for mercy.

Well, because they realized that I was a wizard.

The captain, who was grandly delivering a speech before them, had died. The only slaves who survived followed an old man and a young child.

“I have a question to start with. Why did you try to take Dorothy?”

I waited for their response. Neither courage nor resolution to remain silent in front of the mercenaries and the wizard were present within them.

“We…we just followed orders.”

“Orders?”

“That’s right…We never meant to harm you voluntarily!”

The old man said desperate words.

“We neither ran away voluntarily nor did we struggle to survive in an unbearable situation! It’s all the wicked deed of the cursed manticore!”

“Hey, manticore, you say?”

The black wolf, who had remained silent, asked the old man with a low groan.

The old man nodded his head.

“We were being sold as slaves.”

The old man explained the full story. They were escorting slaves and were attacked by the manticore while leaving Freud’s territory.

The business owners of the caravan were eaten at the spot by the manticore. They made the slaves choose to either get eaten or become its slave.

“And that monster observed us through the animals in the mountains. The bear that was following us wasn’t there to help us, but to observe us…”

“The reason you were pillaging in this area and tried to kidnap Dorothy was…”

“The manticore proclaimed itself a foodie with its own mouth. It ordered us to bring it a young girl to eat…”

The black wolf crinkled his expression.

“I can’t believe that there’s a manticore in these mountains…”

He said with a serious expression. His words made him sound as if he had experienced a manticore before.

“Did you know about the manticore, Mr. Black Wolf?”

“Yeah. I don’t particularly want to remember, but I once fought another manticore.”

“Is that so…?”

“And apart from their control of the beasts and their powerful strength, the most terrifying thing is their extreme malevolence. If this story is true, it’d be best to pull some strings with the bandit eradication team being organized by the lord.”

And then the black wolf looked down at the old man and child who were kneeling before him.

“You weren’t doing it voluntarily, but you tried to harm us. That fact doesn’t change. If we had been defenseless peddlers, we would’ve been the ones harmed.”

I looked at the black wolf. The black wolf questioned the slaves while looking at them.

“Are there still other slaves in the mountains?”

“About 30 people are still up in the mountains as the henchmen of the manticore. Please, spare us…”

“What’s the name of the merchant guild that was escorting you?”

“Lily, it’s Lily.”

“Slavers from the south… looking at the scale of the casualties from the ambush, they’re probably wiped out. Even if we return them, it’ll be hard to collect a reward.”

The black wolf glanced over at mercenaries, the merchant man, and me.

“As per the principle, we split the loot in situations like this. Let’s sell them to a slave merchant at Freud’s Command and split the money.”

The old slave silently stared at the black wolf.

The black wolf made a very rational and logical judgment. The slaves had attacked us and lost to us. And as the black wolf mentioned, if we were defenseless, we would’ve been the ones who got annihilated.

Kill them.

Nothing else would be odd. If sold, it was only right that we claimed those spoils of war.

I thought so too.

However, when Dorothy heard that they’d be sold as slaves, she noticeably flinched. Then, she pulled a grim face as she looked at the black wolf.

Dorothy was of the same social rank as the old slaves. Apparently, the term ‘slave’ felt quite prickly to her.

Even though they had attacked her, the old man stressed that he had no other choice.

For Dorothy, this was a difficult conversation to withstand.

The endorsement of the forced behavior, as a slave of her position was enough to torment Dorothy’s heart.

So, Dorothy finally couldn’t help but open her mouth.

“Release the kid and the old man… Selling them is a despicable act.”

Then, the mercenaries and the black wolf shifted their gaze to Dorothy. The mercenaries spoke with signs of irritation at Dorothy’s point.

The mercenaries could have passed this task without any danger if it was Dorothy who was sold.

Of course, the bear, which was the major problem, had been addressed by Dorothy, me, and the black wolf…

“Are you joking now? We fought these fellows because of someone.”

“Correct. We were aware that you fight well, but if we hadn’t fought, you might’ve been captured by these chaps.”

Dorothy’s lips moved, but no sound came out. It was because she couldn’t think of anything to counter the cynical remarks of these mercenaries.

Dorothy just stared at the mercenaries and the black wolf, picking at her fingers.

The black wolf also spoke, looking at Dorothy,

“What we did was a life-threating battle. The winner has every right to reap the rewards.”

The black wolf mentioned this as he pointed to his discontented men.

“We are mercenaries, not heroes or warriors. We understand their plight, but…”

Before the black wolf could finish, Dorothy yelled.

“But, regardless, slavery…”

Dorothy refuted the black wolf while bowing her head. But that felt close to a denial rather than an actual argument.

She was well aware of this fact.

Black Wolf didn’t bother contradicting Dorothy’s outburst. The mercenaries just crossed their arms in silent bite-back.

There was an extended silence. And I thought everyone had accepted Black Wolf’s stand.

But then, my voice broke the silence.