The Necromancer Commands Slaves, Not Undeads

22 – Manticore Subjugation Battle (5)

The undead bear caused a giant vibration in the ground. The sight of the massive, white bones rushing towards the manticore with full intent was a spectacle to behold.

With ragged breath, Leonard, clad in full plate and a tightly gripped sword, became solely confronted by the manticore as the undead wolves become incapacitated.

Leonard nimbly evaded the manticore’s attacks in the one-on-one situation, but even he had a limit.

He was cornered with an exhausted look when the manticore was about to gobble him up.

At that moment, two huge undead bears threw themselves with accelerating speed at the manticore. An intense gust of wind erupted from their clash.

A deafening roar could be heard. The manticore, suspended mid-air by the bears, crashed into a tree.

“Argghhhhh!!”

The manticore’s scream resonated as the tree cracked and crumbled. The undead bears roared and began to charge towards the manticore embedded in the tree.

“What… the hell am I witnessing?”

Leonard stared dumbfounded at the scene.

I shouted at him, “Fall back! Sir Leonard, help the mercenaries suppress the slaves!”

On hearing my call, Leonard nodded and moved towards the mercenaries battling the rebellious slaves.

Leonard wasn’t the only one watching the beastly brawl.

“Hmm… what is happening… it seems like I’m watching a battle from a myth…”

The lord of Proiet seemed taken aback, his mouth dropping open in disbelief.

The mercenaries, who were battling the slaves occupied by the manticore, also halted momentarily, observing the fight between the undead bear and manticore.

“Is this a dream I’m having…?”

“I think I can understand why people respect and fear magicians…”

Listening to the murmurs around me, I smirked. I released Dorothy from my embrace.

Dorothy looked at me with a worried expression.

“Are you ok, master?”

“Huh?”

“You look extremely tired…”

I rubbed my suddenly droopy eyes and shook my head.

I had summoned ten undead today. Although I had pushed my magic to the limit and was feeling sleepy, it was manageable.

No matter the size of the undead, it seems that the fatigue ratio is the same.

“f*ck! How can a pile of bones move?!”

The manticore shrieked, pinned down by two undead bears, and writhed painfully.

“Ouch! It hurts!!”

Even if the manticore was enormous and powerful, it couldn’t shake off the two undead bears

“I’m afraid that would be impossible.” I showed some feigned sympathy towards the struggling manticore.

“You seem to be hurting a lot. I’m sorry. I don’t have a civilized way to kill you.”

Smiling at the manticore, being painfully pinned down by the bears, Dorothy chimed in.

“It looks hideous even as it’s dying.”

The manticore screamed and probably wished to tear around in fury, but it was unable to do anything pinned by the bears.

“You damn magical brat!! I will certainly eat you here!!”

The manticore desperately spat out words, but it did not get to finish.

The undead bears’ teeth dug into the manticore’s throat. The tough skin was punctured and the manticore’s neck bone fragmented under the bite force of the undead bears.

“That’s impossible… This can’t be…”

The manticore’s life was cut short amidst the battlefield echoing its last words. The light began to fade from its beastly eyes.

The manticore’s desperate struggle soon ended. As the manticore’s body went slack, the undead bears released the manticore’s neck.”She… we won!!”

The cheers of the soldiers, along with the exclamation of Lord Proite, echoed from behind.

The slaves who had been resisting finally dropped their weapons and began to slump to the ground as the Manticore fell.

The expressions on the slaves’ faces were a mix of relief that it was over and anxiety about what would happen to them next.

The mercenaries sheathed their swords toward the surrendering slaves. In the same way, seeing the Black Wolf sheathe his sword and walk toward us, it seems that the situation in the front had also ended.

With a tired expression, I spoke to Dorothy.

“There were some sacrifices, but it ended well.”

“Uh-huh. It’s all thanks to you, master.”

“I didn’t do much, really.”

I looked over the extermination squad. Apart from the center, which was attacked by the bear, the damage wasn’t too severe in the front and rear.

It might be hard to see this as a grand victory, but still, we could consider it a victory attained with small sacrifices.

However, looking at the horrific corpses in the center, even though we had won, I didn’t feel too good.

“Why are you looking so glum?”

“Mr. Black Wolf…”

As he wiped the blood from his face, the Black Wolf approached me and spoke casually.

“That’s how fights are. The moment they joined the extermination squad, they knew this could be their end. Considering that, we got off cheap.”

While listening to his words, I nodded slightly. Unlike the modern world, this world was one where death was much closer to people.

Expressing how I felt right now could help. I took a deep breath, and smiled.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

The Black Wolf ruffled my hair with his large hand.

And so, the Manticore extermination battle ended in our victory.

***

The extermination squad returned safely to the Proite estate. The bodies of the fallen soldiers were buried in the cemetery by the lord’s orders.

The survivors received generous treatment from Lord Proite. The promised reward of ten gold each was increased to twelve gold.

Those mercenaries who distinguished themselves in the battle also filled the empty positions of the fallen lords’ soldiers. There were even talks of conferring the title of knight upon the Black Wolf.

He had abilities, so it was only natural for him to seize such opportunities when they came.

Leonard received a horse as a reward for gallantly fighting the Manticore alone.

As for the slaves who were captured by the Manticore and forced to fight against the extermination squad, they were indeed collected as spoils of war by the lord…

But what kind of punishment the Lord would impose upon them was uncertain.

Dorothy was distressed about these slaves, but there was nothing more we could do.

The situation was resolved, and in celebration of the extermination team’s victory, the Lord was to hold a grand feast tonight.

The promised reward for participants of the extermination team will be given out at the feast.

We were originally planning to leave as soon as the extermination mission was over, but on account of the Lord’s insistence that we stay, we had to remain in Proite until after the feast.

Dorothy and I entered the inn to prepare for our departure after the feast. We packed our stuff.

We hadn’t been there long and were going to leave soon, so there wasn’t much sentiment.

We packed our cleanly laundered clothes neatly into our backpacks and bought dried food with the remaining money.

After taking care of all the tasks and even taking a bath, I went to my bed.

“Yawn… there’s still about three hours left until the festival.”

“Uh-huh.”

The Gathering Magic had left me utterly drained. If we were to depart tonight, it would be best to sleep now.

“I’m going to get some sleep. If you’re tired, Dorothy…”

I couldn’t finish my sentence as sleepiness hit me as soon as my head hit the pillow.

“Sleep well…”

My consciousness slowly faded, and I fell asleep.

***

Dorothy stared at her master who was sleeping defenselessly.

Her master once said his age was thirteen.

Dorothy found this fact very intriguing. Though she was the same age, her master seemed very mature compare to her.

He had been an assistant magician, so he’s precocious in aWhether it was the situation that was strange or it was the master who was strange to begin with…

The sight the master showed today in the punitive force was very impressive to Dorothy.

Remembering the moment when the master held her and stroked her head at the punitive force, Dorothy’s face was felt hot.

‘It was warm.’

Although his face didn’t show to the master because she was embraced, then her face was also hot.

Dorothy observed the face of the master who was sleeping on the bed.

Black hair and the cute cheeks that the boy usually has. Lying next to him, she softly stroked her master’s cheek.

Since she was not over 150cm. The master was around 140cm.

“Uh-huh…”

Dorothy was surprised at the sleep talking sound of the master. Could he have woken up because she just stroked his cheek…?

Fortunately, that seemed to be just sleep talking. Dorothy sighed a sigh of relief.

‘I should probably go and explore the city.’

As soon as Dorothy was about to get up from the bed… her body was pulled back.

“!?@?!”

The master’s arm wrapped around Dorothy who was trying to get up. She tried to escape, but failed.

As if he didn’t want to let go of her laying body, the master held Dorothy closely just like a body pillow.

He breathed deeply with his leg on Dorothy’s thighs.

“Ma, Master?”

As Dorothy tried to softly remove the master’s arm, he sleep talked again.

“Dorothy…”

Upon hearing her name, Dorothy’s heart started beating.

The girl’s face turned red as if it was dyed in sunset, and a warm and snug temperature could be felt from her body more than any blanket.

“Uh-huh…”

Burying her face in the chest of the master who was sleeping, Dorothy whispered all the same holding on to her master.

“I’ll, be here.”

With a happier expression than anyone in the world, the girl whispered to the sleeping master.