The Necromancer Commands Slaves, Not Undeads

19 – The Manticore Extermination (2)

Two days later. As the sun rose, people equipped with weapons began gathering in the town square of the minute hour. Under the command of Lord Prouitt, the extermination team was organized.

The army consisting of the Lord’s private soldiers took their places neatly in front of the square. All of them were wearing high-quality scale armor. The quality of their swords and shields also looked quite high.

Unlike the Lord’s private soldiers, mercenaries started gathering one by one. Each of them came with a different setup, some even without the basic armor.

Just as the lord had mentioned, although there were more than 60 mercenaries…. their skills seemed to be lacking considerably.

The mercenary guild led by the black wolf seemed to have a certain level of professionalism. The Black Wolf himself was a renowned mercenary in the area, and his mercenaries were trained by him.

However, the other mercenaries differed from the Black Wolf’s mercenary guild. By its very nature, we could not expect professionalism from the occupation of a mercenary.

They were usually misfits waving their swords around, frequenting from one place to another without having a fixed employer.

It was a typical image of a mercenary, who had an unstable income due to no trust and had to scrape a living by wielding weapons.

At 1 pm, when all the mercenaries had arrived, the square was filled with hordes of men.

In this crowd, Dorothy and I were also included.

“There are a lot of people.”

“Yes. Seeing it in person is quite different from just hearing about it.”

Dorothy and I watched the stage in the square. A moment later, Lord Oliver Pruett of Pruit and his knights following behind climbed onto the stage.

Lord Oliver Pruett cleared his throat and began his speech.

“Warriors gathered for Pruit, in this time of crisis, to fight for Pruit…””Your bravery is desperately needed at this time.”

As the lord began to speak, the bustling atmosphere of the square immediately turned grave. The people gathered in the square began to listen intently to the lord’s speech.

“Originally, you were hired to subdue the bandits terrorizing the Province of Freud, but the situation has taken a critical turn. There’s a new threat in the Province of Freud, besides bandits.”

“It’s name is Manticore.. what you may know as a man-faced lion.”

As the name ‘Manticore’ was mentioned, the mood of the square became confused. Even the lord’s soldiers could not hide their bewildered expressions, let alone the mercenaries.

The mercenaries began to exchange glances and mumble amongst each other.

The lord watched this unfolding scene. We had anticipated this situation and discussed it beforehand, but his expression darkened.

Still, the lord continued.

“Powerful, brutal, ferocious, gluttonous… There are far too many words that symbolize this monster. It’s a lion with the face of a human, but it controls beasts and devours people.”

“But, if the heroes gathered here can turn the tide, we can write a new legend here today.”

“To lend strength to this Province of Freud…”

The lord did not finish his sentence. Because among the mercenaries, one shouted out loudly.

“This is different from what was advertised! We came here to hunt down bandits, not to hunt the Manticore!”

“Exactly! What was said in the announcement is quite different!”

They voiced their complaints to the lord. Among them, some appeared scared, contemplating their exit.

They didn’t come here for the Freud Province, they came here to earn a living. There was no reason in this expedition worthy enough for them to risk their lives fighting a Manticore.

The Manticore was an incredible monster, just like the black wolf had previously mentioned.

Its large size, intelligence equal to that of a human made it very cunning.

It had the dreadful appearance of a lion with a human face.

Moreover, it had the ability to control the beasts around it.

The prospect of facing this monster was equivalent to risking life.

Could they even win even if they risk their lives?

Their reaction was understandable.

“I’m out.”

“Order your soldiers to do the suicide mission.”

One after another, the mercenaries began to leave. As the lord watched them go, he swallowed his sigh.

This would indeed result in a significant reduction in the number of men. It was time for me to step in.

“Wait here.”

“Okay.”

I told Dorothy to wait and made my way through the crowd of restless mercenaries.

When I, a small boy draped in a black robe, climbed onto the stage, the clamoring died down, and all eyes were on me.

From the stage, the lord spoke to me in a hushed voice.

“You really have a way, don’t you?”

I responded to the lord’s question with a smile and tapped the bottom of my wooden staff on the ground.

Thump! The sound echoed in the ears of everyone standing in the square.

I opened my mouth to speak.

“Extermination team gathered here to help Freud Province, I understand the confusion and apprehension you feel right now.”

“Because not only has the mission to exterminate bandits changed to exterminating a Manticore, but the Manticore is also a formidable monster capable of easily eating a hundred humans.”

Many people were looking at me from below the stage. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel the tension from their stares.

Instead, the thoughts in my mind began to pour out.

“The rewards for the extermination team are substantial, but they’re nothing compared to your lives. It would be rational for you to leave right now.”

The Black Wolf…He was listening to my speech in the right corner, with his subordinates.

His crossed arms and penetrative gaze seemed to ask what I was thinking.

I spoke up, loudly.

“I will raise the reward by 10 gold coins. I promise to pay 10 gold coins to each participant of this mission.”

Upon this, the lord looked at me with a shocked expression. After all, I had doubled the bounty.

I spread out my index, middle, and ring fingers, and then folded my ring finger.

I made a bet with the lord. If we successfully complete this mission, he would have to fulfill three requests to the best of his ability.

I used one of which.

“I will add one more condition, lord. Please grant the title of knight and small fief in the Freud province to the bravest and most accomplished warrior in this mission. I should mention that this applies to soldiers as well as mercenaries.”

I folded my middle finger. The mercenaries and soldiers swallowed their saliva and looked at me intensely. The lord was staring at me in disbelief.

I returned their gaze, smiling.

“This is a pretty good deal, even accounting for the risks.”

I looked at the lord, and he coughed awkwardly and spoke up.

“As the lord of Freud province, I promise to uphold what this man has declared here.”

He and I had a deal. It was only logical to significantly raise the pay when he had initially intended to subjugate bandits and suddenly changed the mission to subduing a manticore.

The second condition I put forward, however, was a unilateral decision made without any discussion. Even if it was a promise, it would be quite burdensome for the lord.

He looked at me with a troubled expression.

I ignored the troubled lord and continued speaking.

“And this manticore subjugation will not be that difficult.”

I slowly remove the eye patch covering my right eye. I swung back the robe covering my face, revealing my looks.

All but a few who were looking at me began to murmur as they saw my right eye.

I spoke to the flustered crowd, “I am a mage. As a mage, I can promise you here and now, this mission will be our perfect victory.”

“You have the chance to grasp a record of defeating a manticore, compensation that is proportional to that, and possibly even an opportunity to increase your status.”

“Warriors, let’s fight! If not now, then when! Fight and survive to become a legend!”

At the end of my words, the plaza started to shake. The ground split open and a skeletal horse jumped high up towards the sky, piercing through the gap.

The skeletal horse smoothly landed on the platform, its eyes replaced by a black empty space emitting an eerie blue light, looking down on the crowd.

All those who witnessed this strange command technique were astounded.

I had awakened the soul of a non-human entity for the first time, and it was very successful.

As the black wolf and my mercenaries began to cheer and applaud, the crowd began to cheer, exclaim and applause at me.

In the midst of the noise, I lightly said to the lord, “Tell me about the title and fief after the subjugation. I will refuse it appropriately.”

Smiling at him, I descended from the platform with the skeleton horse.

Stumped, the lord stared at me, but soon regained his senses and and gave the mercenaries and soldiers an order with high spirit.

“Starting from now, we will execute the operation to eradicate the manticore that threatens Freud!”

The locus of the operation was the mountain where the manticore resided, in Freud province.

Pumped up, creating a dust storm, the expedition team started to move out.