The Necromancer Commands Slaves, Not Undeads

3 – Translation (3)

It has already been two weeks since Dorothy came to this house as a slave. Everyday, I applied ointment to her wounds and now, there were no more scars left.

During her recovery, I taught her tasks she needed to do as a maid in the house. Now, Dorothy can do the cooking and cleaning well.

She can also speak the Imperial Language pretty well.

Once she healed, I took her blood using tools left by the old woman. The prickling sensation was something she was not accustomed to.Dorothy squinted her eyes.

“Stay still.”

She handed Dorothy a towel. I went back to the old woman’s attic with the blood drawn.

I opened the Necronomicon and looked at it again. It was still an unreadable text…

I swallowed a mouthful of the drawn blood with my smartphone placed beside it.

The raw taste of the blood lingered in my mouth. It left a bitter and salty taste that made me grimace.

“Ugh.”

Though I’ve licked blood from a wound, this was the first time I’ve taken a mouthful just like that.

After a while, I exhaled with a sigh. I waited for minutes after drinking the blood but I felt no changes.

“Well, what could happen…”

The moment I thought it was a waste and was standing up, my heart began to rapidly pound out of the blue. All of a sudden, cold sweat began to run down my body.

“What, suddenly…”

My heart started beating like mad, just like after an intense workout. This feeling frightened and disgusted me. Following this sensation, I felt a burning pain in my right eye.

“aaah!!”

I fell to the floor from my chair, clasping my right eye. It felt like someone was stirring my eye, which dried out as if all the liquid had evaporated.

“aaaugh!”

For a while, I was lost in the pain. As I writhed like a madman, Dorothy heard my screams and hurried to check my condition.

“■■■■!! ■■■■■!! ■■■■■■■!!”

I couldn’t understand what she was saying. She seemed to be speaking in the kingdom’s language because of the urgent situation.

I didn’t have the leisure to turn on the translator amidst the pain. Dorothy’s voice was just a loud and unbearable sound.

Dorothy climbed onto my wiggling body. I tried to resist, but Dorothy was rather strong. She firmly pinned my torso and forcibly opened my right eye.

Then she cried out in the clumsy language of the empire, a look of horror on her face.

“Eye, cobweb!”

Gradually the pain subsided, and her voice lingered in my ear.

“Master… Your eye, it’s full of cobwebs!”

“Augh, what on earth…”

I was barely able to calm my writhing body. After sorting out my body, I lay exhausted on the floor, panting heavily.

“Master, there’s a cobweb in your eye…”

Frantically shaking my lying shoulder, she went and fetched a mirror which she pressed towards me.

I blurred out by the tears of pain and looked into the mirror.

As I opened my squinted right eye, I understood her words.

There was a cobweb-like pattern carved into my right eyeball.

“This…”

I realized that the vision in my right eye has altered.

The world was black and white. The reason it was described as black and white was because I could not see any color projected from the objects completely. But in this monochromatic view, a unique, burning blue color was visible.

This blue was in a flame-like shape. And this blue flame was in none other than inside a person’s body.

I looked at the small blue flame burning inside Dorothy. I blinked as I wiped away the water welling up around my eyes.

“Master, are you okay?”

Dorothy was looking at me with a worried expression. She gently grasped my shoulder.

“Yes. As you can see, I’m fine.”

“Cobweb in your eye…”

“The pain has subsided. I also don’t know what’s going on. But it’s probably nothing.”

“Really, are you okay?”

“Yes. Thank you for being concerned.”

I gently stroked Dorothy’s head. Upon seeing this she let out a relieved sigh. Stroking the head of someone taller than me felt odd.

“I, work now. Say if strange.”

After speaking in the clumsy imperial language as clear as she could, Dorothy glanced at me and then disappeared back into the attic.

I then straightened out my mess of clothes and got up. As I sat at the desk, I looked at the contrasting two worlds.

“Is this… a spirit sight.”

And then I practiced-He looked out the window beyond the room. Beyond the natural view, countless blue flames were flickering. The shapes of blue flames varied. Some were burning intensely, and some were feebly flickering on the brink of fading.

He hurried and looked at the paper that the old man had translated.

“The next part is only to be read by those who have opened their spiritual eyes.”

“Congratulations. You’ve gained the spiritual eyesight to see the dead and the spirit. It must have been a quite horrendous pain. But rewards are given to those who overcome the pain.”

“From now on, you have gained the basic qualifications to use necromancy.”

“As mages create power from mana existing in creatures and objects, but we can gain strength from a more profound power, the soul.”

The translation was crammed with such details. From necromancy to its principle, the entire process was described in detail.

He glanced through the old man’s translation. It explained about a third of the original text.

He tried to use his phone for translation, but nothing came up. It wasn’t all-powerful.

He felt skeptical about the smartphone as well. No matter how much he used it, the battery level always stayed at 80%. It was delivered right after the old man’s death and he regained his memories as soon as he received it.

He wondered why it came to him, why its battery never ran out, and why it existed in this world.

He flipped the translated text.

“There’s definitely nothing more to gain from this hovel.”

He had decided on his course of action. So, he decided to prepare. The nagging doubts needed to be resolved.

“First, I should learn to use this necromancy.”

As mentioned before, this world is not kind to a 13-year-old boy. He had a hunch that necromancy would be the greatest weapon to shield him.

He grabbed the translated text and got out of the hovel.

***

Every day since that day he gained spiritual eyes, he practiced necromancy. But he couldn’t make any progress in gaining power from the spirit.

Today too, he stretched his hand into the air and recited the incantation of necromancy outside of the hovel.

“Wake from your sleep!”

But the only response was the cold wind. He breathed out a long sigh and stared at the translation again.

‘When the living encroach upon the domain of the dead, spirits instinctively show interest. Wake the spirits that came close. Then, they return to the place they should have been alive. They shall serve you with loyalty in return for the momentary passage into the realm of the living.’

“What the hell does this mean…”

He couldn’t comprehend. As he let out a sigh steeped in disappointment, Dorothy crawled out from the hovel.

“Boss, how’s the ingredients?”

“Excuse me?”

Unable to understand Dorothy’s words, she showed a puzzled expression. Then she explained through gestures.

She raised her arms exaggeratedly, mimed eating something, crossed her arms in an X and grew a satisfied expression on her face.

“Oh, are you talking about the food? Have we run out of ingredients already?”

Then, Dorothy nodded vigorously. Her face turned a bit red, likely because of the embarrassment from the previous explanation.

He stared at Dorothy. The filthy body that he saw for the first time had regained its original glossy whiteness after a bath but the blanket that covered her body was too shameful to be called a dress.

“I think we need to go shopping. And we need to buy you some clothes.”

“Shopping, clothes?”

“Shopping is what we call buying food and groceries and clothes are these things.”

“Ah, got it.”

Dorothy nodded as if she understood.

“Can you wait for me for a while?”

Then he went back to the yard where Dorothy was waiting, with a backpack to go shopping and five nips of gold coins.

“Then, let’s head to the town.”

“Okay. Backpack.”

“I’ll hold it.”

Looking at him, Dorothy simply nodded.

So, Dorothy and he left the hovel.I left.

As we headed towards Elyaryeong, I taught Dorothy various words. If she really couldn’t understand, I turned to the translator to help her learn the words.

Dorothy stared at me, her eyes filled with fascination.

“This square thing, it’s fascinating.”

“I’m very fascinated as well. I don’t know why it returned to my hands.”

“Is that only capable of conversation?”

“If you mean translating, no, that’s not it.”

And then, I played one of the songs stored on my smartphone.

Yiruma’s River Flows in You flowed out, a composition I stowed away for mental tranquillity.

Although it was only the sound of the piano, it was one of the masterpieces that no one would consider monotonous.

At the sound of the beautiful melodious flow, Dorothy was momentarily surprised, but soon, she was engrossed in the music and wore a serene smile.

“I like this.”

“Are you talking about the music?”

“Yes, I like music.”

“Me too. I like it as well.”

“Let’s listen to this continuously.”

“I would have said it’s not possible because of the beasts during the night, but let’s listen while we walk since it’s daytime now.”

Thus, we strolled through the forest accompanied by the piano melody.