Chapter 17: The Corpse

After the initial shock of being startled by the corpse subsided, I took another careful look at the dead face lying on the ground.

“Hmm, I wasn’t seeing things—this is that guard we met yesterday, isn’t it?”

The guard lay sprawled on his back, staring up at the sky, his face frozen in an expression of terror.

From where I stood, I couldn’t see any wound on him, but there was a large puddle of already congealed blood on the ground.

That meant the injury was on his back.

Should I turn him over?

But touching a corpse… felt kind of gross.

I looked at my hands, then frowned at the dead body on the ground.

Wait a minute.

I was a lich, wasn’t I?

Liches were undead who handled corpses, right?

So maybe I… After a moment’s thought, I decided against it.

I was just preserving the crime scene, that’s all.

My scream earlier had been pretty loud—they should be able to find me.

I’d just wait here.

Before long, Frey and the other two followed the sound and arrived.

“Rosa!

Where are you?”

“I’m over here!”

“Are you okay, Rosa?!”

Warren rushed over the moment he heard my voice.

“Are you hurt?”

He started checking me over from head to toe.

“I’m fine.

I just got spooked by a dead body.”

I raised my hand to block his scanning gaze and pointed at the corpse on the ground.

“It’s one of the guards from last night.

He’s dead.”

Frey and Uncle Hans stepped forward and crouched down beside the body, examining it.

“He’s been dead for a while,” Hans said, turning the guard over.

“This is probably the cause.”

He pointed at the guard’s lower back, where there was a clear wound, surrounded by bloodstains.

“One strike kill…” Frey looked around at the surroundings.

“No signs of a struggle.

This was a surprise attack from behind.

Where’s the other one?”

“Shouldn’t be too far… Look, over here.”

Warren pushed aside a nearby patch of bushes, revealing the second guard’s body.

“Same wound—a sharp weapon piercing the lower back from behind.”

After examining both bodies, Frey stood up and surveyed the area again.

“If I’m not mistaken, they were both killed one by one from behind.

The killer covered their mouths, stabbed them in the back, and repeated the process.”

“It still looks like he didn’t use any magic at all.

He’s basically just an assassin!”

Warren couldn’t help but say.

I agreed—his methods were purely those of an assassin.

“While that is strange, there’s something more important we need to consider.

His goal in killing these two was probably to prevent them from bringing news back to the lord and summoning a large force to search for him.”

Frey turned to Hans.

“Uncle Hans, how did you get word out to the town last time?”

That was a good point.

Since he was killing anyone who could spread the message, how had the village managed to inform the city guards about the mayor’s death?

“There’s someone in the village who keeps carrier pigeons.

We sent word about the mayor’s death that way.”

“Then we need to get back to the village right away and send another message to the lord,” I said.

Since the messengers were dead, we needed to get word out as fast as possible.

“No.”

Frey disagreed.

“I’d say those pigeons are probably dead by now.

Since the hooded figure knows the village managed to send word and bring the guards here, he’s unlikely to make the same mistake again.”

He had a point.

If he understood the importance of keeping the news contained, he wouldn’t overlook that detail.

“We didn’t think of that last night—or we would’ve sent a pigeon right away,” Hans grumbled.

“Still, even if the news is blocked, the lord will eventually notice the guards are missing.

It’ll only buy a few days at most.

Wouldn’t it be easier for him to just leave instead of killing more guards and drawing more heat?”

“That suggests he’s confident he can achieve his goal within just a few days…”

After hearing Frey’s conclusion, Uncle Hans and Warren’s expressions grew serious.

If everything Frey predicted was true, then we couldn’t afford to waste any time.

“Whatever he’s after, we need to stop him.

Killing so many people and drawing attention to himself means his goal can’t be anything good,” Warren said anxiously.

“We should head back to the village first and figure things out from there!”

“But what about these two bodies?

Just leave them here?”

I glanced at the corpses.

Leaving them out in the wild seemed wrong.

“We’ll bury them here.”

Uncle Hans unsheathed the greatsword he carried on his back and began digging with it.

Warren and Frey drew their swords and joined in.

It was slow going, but we didn’t have any proper digging tools.

Without shovels, this was the best we could do.

I stood off to the side, unable to help.

“Sorry about this, Rosa.

The hooded figure might still be nearby, so for safety’s sake, we need to get back quickly.

We won’t have time to retrieve the water buckets from the river.

Hope you can bear with it,” Hans said apologetically.

“Haha, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

I waved my hand.

Since I didn’t sweat as a lich, skipping a bath was no problem at all.

After burying the two guards, we didn’t waste any time and headed straight back to the village.

Once there, we immediately went to find the person who raised the carrier pigeons.

He told us that the pigeons had been found dead early this morning—exactly as Frey had predicted.

We then went straight to the mayor’s house.

“Elf, the two guards from yesterday are dead.

Their bodies were found not far from the village.”

Hans pushed open the door without ceremony—rude, but his urgency was clear.

The mayor, who had been eating breakfast inside, seemed to sense the gravity of the situation.

He set down his utensils and stood up.

“Send word by pigeon—”

“I’ve already checked.

That bastard got to them first.”

“Hmph…” Elf stroked his chin.

“So he’s determined to see this through to the end…

Very well.

I understand the situation.

You all go back for now.

I’ll gather the villagers later to discuss this.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Reborn, My Arch-Enemy Became My Happy Ending

BL RomancehappyendingRebirth

Read Now →
Not interested