Chapter 79
I’m Becoming Someone Who Isn’t Me
“You think you can do something like this and get away with it?!”
Had fear driven him insane?
Or was he desperately clinging to the last scraps of his authority?
Count Buchenheim, Devin Buchenheim, shouted at me furiously.
“What are the knights doing?! Seize this bastard at once—!”
“Sorry, but the knights aren’t coming.”
The moment I interrupted him, the Count’s face turned pale.
“What do you mean they aren’t coming?”
Watching him ask that, I smiled pleasantly.
“You were trapped in the illusion I created for about two hours.”
“Tw-Two hours?!”
I nodded at the horrified Count before adding calmly:
“More than enough time for a necromancer to take control of this place.”
“Take control...?”
The Count’s body trembled.
“Then the knights and servants too... all of them...?”
“They’re all seeing illusions similar to yours.”
At those words, the strength seemed to leave his body.
The knights, the servants, the maids—every one of them trapped in illusions.
That realization shattered his will.
‘Well, not nearly as intense as yours.’
Creating complicated hallucinations consumed a massive amount of demonic energy.
While I was already busy summoning Keldin’s soul, there was no way I could show every person in the mansion something on that level.
At most, I had dulled their consciousness and implanted the suggestion that “nothing is wrong with the mansion.”
“Now then, shall we talk?”
“Talk...?”
I leaned closer to the Count as he weakly lifted his head.
Unlike before, when I’d been openly playful, my face now held no emotion at all.
“The holy blood Helian received from the Order.”
“...!”
At those words, Count Buchenheim visibly recoiled.
“I-I don’t know anything! That was between Helian and the Order...!”
“That’s a pretty intense reaction for someone who supposedly knows nothing.”
I continued pressing him.
“Talk. Where is the holy blood being manufactured? Who’s producing it?”
“I don’t know! I really, truly don’t know...!”
Watching the Count desperately shake his head in denial, I replied coldly:
“Really? Then I guess it can’t be helped.”
“...?”
The Count stared blankly, not understanding.
I grabbed his head.
“W-What are you doing?!”
“What else?”
Looking at the Count trembling with growing dread, I smiled brightly.
“Maybe after taking another trip there, you’ll change your mind.”
The color drained from the Count’s face instantly.
“No. No, stop! Don’t—!”
“Too late.”
The moment I said that, the Count rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness.
And about five seconds later—
“U-UAAAAAGH?!”
He jolted upright with a horrifying scream.
“Ah... ahhh...! Aaaahhh...!”
The Count groaned while tears poured from his eyes.
I grabbed him by the hair and forced him to meet my gaze.
“Now then, how much time do you think passed this time?”
“Wh-What...?”
Still unable to understand, the Count’s eyes drifted toward the wall clock behind me.
“AAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH—!”
Less than a minute had passed.
The moment he confirmed that, the Count screamed like a madman.
“No! I definitely— definitely spent four days trapped with those things...!”
“Next time it’ll be double. After that, it’ll multiply again.”
That’s what I said—
but in truth, this was essentially my final warning.
Even I couldn’t repeatedly show hallucinations like that over and over again.
But after experiencing hell twice already, the Count no longer had any will left to resist.
“Hhk...! Hngh...!”
If it meant escaping my grasp, he looked ready to do absolutely anything.
“Ha... so that’s how it is...”
As I listened to his words, tension filled my shoulders.
The Count rambled endlessly, eventually reaching the point where he no longer even understood what he himself was saying.
Yet among all his incoherent babbling, one location became unmistakably clear.
Lifting his tear-stained face, the Count finally spoke toward me.
Like a confession.
Like a plea.
Almost like a prayer.
He began confessing everything—
his dealings with the Order, and his dealings with Helian.
From the names of major figures, including the Pope himself, to the smallest fragments buried in his memories.
He spoke as though willing to do anything if it meant escaping my grasp.
“Ha... so that’s how it is...”
As I listened, my expression stiffened.
Though the Count rambled incoherently, one particular place stood out clearly.
“Correctional Facility...”
Just saying the name irritated me now.
I spat it out harshly.
“I’d heard the Order was manufacturing it, but I never thought it was actually those bastards.”
I had gained something valuable.
And yet my expression remained dark.
Because the most important thing—
information about the Empire itself—
was still missing.
“I really don’t know who in the Empire was involved.”
“You don’t know?”
“I-I’m telling the truth!”
When I questioned him again, the terrified Count shouted desperately.
“Other than Helian, I really don’t know anything! If you dig too deeply into it, you lose your head! That’s why...!”
“The Emperor... Merdir...”
Crrrk.
There was no lie in the Count’s desperate voice.
But at the same time, the answer was simple to infer.
‘Someone even Helian feared. Someone powerful enough to kill a Count-ranked noble whenever they pleased.’
A scoff escaped me automatically.
Because in this continent, there was only one person capable of that.
“The Emperor... Merdir...”
Crrrk.
The Count’s voice shook desperately.
But my mind was already racing.
Just his existence alone allowed countless things to be deduced.
Why the Empire was researching necromancy.
Why it was involved with the holy blood experiments.
And even why they had personally recovered Helian’s body.
“Good. That’s enough interrogation.”
With those words, I withdrew the demonic energy suppressing him.
“Guhk?!”
Was it because the tension vanished?
Or because relief finally hit him?
The Count’s body sagged limply as though every ounce of strength had drained from him.
“Huff... huff...!”
“But your work is only beginning now.”
Looking down at the utterly exhausted Count, I slowly opened my mouth.
“Wh-What...?”
Ignoring the Count’s weak question, I continued speaking.
And if that person happened to be none other than Count Buchenheim, the very center of the branch faction?
“Count Buchenheim will continue acting as the branch faction’s second-in-command while secretly feeding information to Leinrant.”
“.....!”
The purpose of my infiltration here had been to plant a spy inside the branch faction.
And the spy I had chosen—
was Count Buchenheim himself.
“The dealings between the branch nobles and the Empire. Their hidden slush funds. Smuggling operations. Everything.”
A web of tangled interests and alliances formed from them.
The moment all of that fell into Leinrant’s hands,
the main family would gain the power to slit the throats of the branch nobles whenever they pleased.
“This is the deal I’m offering you.”
At the word deal, the exhausted Count frantically nodded.
“I-I understand! I’ll do it!”
Count Buchenheim hurriedly continued.
“I-I have information I can hand over immediately! For example, the territory of Kaldia in the central-western region—!”
Just as he reached that point—
“...What exactly have you been talking about this whole time?”
I asked him with a genuinely puzzled expression.
“W-What do you mean?”
The Count looked at me as though he were the one unable to understand.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you?! You told me to become a spy! So I was going to tell you the information I know—!”
“Ahhh, so that’s what you thought.”
Cutting him off, I waved my hand dismissively.
“I wasn’t talking to you, so don’t worry about it.”
“What?”
Leaving the frowning Count behind—
“Can you do it?”
I looked over his shoulder as I asked.
—Very well. I accept.
The voice from behind him instantly drained the color from Devin’s face.
“N-No!”
The Count shouted and spun around.
Srrrrrr...!
Infused with demonic energy, the ectoplasm used as material for the doppelganger slowly took shape into a spirit body.
And what emerged at the end was—
“U-Urrgh...?!”
—It has been a long time, Devin.
The elder brother of Count Buchenheim, Devin Buchenheim.
Keldin Buchenheim.
“H-How is my brother... possible...?”
Overwhelmed with terror and shock, the Count could no longer form proper words.
—There is nothing more for us to say between brothers.
After looking at his younger brother once, Keldin immediately lost interest in him and walked toward me.
Pazzt—!
A circle formed between us, and a spell appeared within it.
A contract seal formed between necromancer and dead.
—The dead, Keldin Buchenheim, accepts your contract.
At those words, his name engraved itself into the contract seal.
Confirming it, I extended my own hand as well.
—Guide, Klein Leinrant, confirms the contract. From this moment onward, it shall take effect.
I looked toward Keldin’s face and continued.
—The price of betrayal—
—Shall be the annihilation of the soul.
Unlike the creation of a Death Knight, this contract was dry and simple.
A spell composed of basic geometric forms.
Soon, it sank into the ectoplasmic body surrounding him.
Fssshhhhh...!
The body that had formed around him collapsed away, revealing the true form of his soul radiating blue light.
“What... what are you doing right now?!”
Realizing something had gone horribly wrong, Count Buchenheim shouted desperately.
I smiled while enjoying the anxiety written all over his face and reached out toward him.
Chrrrrrrk—!
“U-Urrgh?!”
A spell began crawling across the body bound to the chair.
Like a venomous serpent slithering toward his throat.
Like parasites slowly consuming him alive.
“I’m turning Count Buchenheim into an ally.”
“W-What...?”
Soon, the spell covering his body began emitting a blue glow.
Fwaaaash—!
“Since it’s his brother’s body, it should be much easier to enter.”
Brother’s body.
Enter.
The Count slowly processed those words—
and his eyes widened.
‘Looks like he finally figured it out.’
Harvesting perfectly ripened fruit always felt rewarding.
Feeling a small sense of accomplishment, I spoke toward the blue soul floating beside me.
“Possession preparations complete. You may enter whenever you wish, Keldin.”
Possession.
A necromantic art that placed the soul of the dead inside the body of the living.
And the safest method possible for turning Count Buchenheim—the very core of the branch faction—into my personal puppet.
Once a contracted soul possessed his body, betrayal would no longer be a concern.
And Keldin’s soul desired this as well.
Fssssst—!
Without a word, the soul of the dead approached the Count.
Under the influence of the dense demonic energy filling the room, the Count could clearly see it too.
“N-No! Stay away! STAY AWAY—!”
Watching him thrash about with tears streaming down his face...
Honestly,
it felt incredibly refreshing.
“This... this goes too far!”
Sensing death approaching, the Count screamed at me like a madman.
“Is this truly the way of Leinrant?!”
Whether it was a curse or merely his final desperate struggle, he continued shouting even as Keldin’s soul reached right before him.
“H-How can a knight of the main family rely on such evil sorcery—!”
“Ahh. Sorry, but you’re misunderstanding something pretty badly.”
Pointing at myself with a finger, I answered him calmly.
“I’m not a knight.”
“I’m a necromancer.”
“...!”
And the moment those words reached him—
FWAAAAASH—!
A brilliant light enveloped his body.
The Count lowered his head for a moment before slowly raising it again.
Snap. Snap.
The arm of a summoned skeleton severed the ropes binding him.
Freed from the chair, the Count slowly walked toward me.
“So, how does it feel to be reborn?”
When I asked that, the Count knelt before me on one knee.
“To the benefactor who released my lingering resentment and granted me a new life, I offer my words.”
His voice was calm and composed—
completely unlike the hot-tempered Devin from before.
“Klein Leinrant. You are my king.”
Deeply bowing his head, he spoke those words to me.
‘King, huh? How dramatic.’
That was what I thought inwardly, though I still answered him slowly.
“Then I’ll be counting on you, Count Buchenheim.”