Chapter 1: The Lich Living in the Demon Realm

Before I could even process what was happening, I suddenly found myself flying sideways as if I’d been hit by a truck.

I crashed into a massive dead tree, and the impact was so tremendous that the trunk—which five or six people together couldn’t have wrapped their arms around—snapped clean in two.

Yet, despite suffering such a terrifying blow, I didn’t feel much pain.

No, to be precise, I felt absolutely nothing at all, as if it hadn’t been me who got hit.

What… what happened to me?

I looked around in bewilderment.

Withered trees stretched out everywhere, the black earth was scarred with cracks, the sky hung gloomy and lifeless, and an eerie green mist permeated the air.

This place looked seriously sinister!

‘Wroooargh!’

Before I could figure out what was going on, the roar of a beast thundered through my brain.

A massive grey-black wolf stood before me, bellowing.

Standing roughly four or five meters tall, it bared a maw full of fangs.

That terrifying sight alone would probably make even brave adult men collapse in fear.

I was a coward too—facing something like this, I should have been terrified…

‘Huh?

Why does my heart feel absolutely nothing?’

If this had been me from a few minutes ago, I’d definitely have been scared out of my wits in this horrible place, let alone with a giant monster roaring right in front of me.

It seemed… I had no emotional fluctuations at all anymore.

The giant wolf lunged at me, clearly not caring that I was still deep in thought.

‘Oh crap!

Even if I’m not scared, what do I do now?

Dodge?’

It was obvious that an ordinary twenty-first-century teenager like me had no good way of dealing with monsters.

But before I could decide, my body moved on its own out of sheer instinct.

“Wither.”

I calmly extended my right hand toward the beast and spoke a strange word flatly.

Then… the giant wolf visibly shriveled up before my eyes.

By the time it reached me, it was nothing but a wolf pelt stretched over bones.

I wanted to be surprised, but that simple emotional response didn’t come.

I could only fall silent at the sight.

This feeling was so strange—as if I had become some emotionless, hyper-logical genius.

Looking at my own pallid hands and touching my own cold face, I pieced it together with my current surroundings.

Had I been turned into an undead being?

Just a moment ago, I was an ordinary teenager wasting my summer vacation playing games I’d bought during the Steam Summer Sale.

Why did I suddenly become an undead in a hellish place?

Though, judging by what just happened, this undead was actually pretty strong.

Wait… because of the sudden emergency earlier, I hadn’t noticed, but now that things had calmed down, I quickly realized—there was another set of memories in my mind.

I am a lich.

Two hundred years ago, I voluntarily became an undead lich in pursuit of deeper, ancient, and powerful evil magic.

I gained eternal life and incomparable magical power.

I fled to the demon realm to escape the church’s persecution of evil beings, and today I went out to find some necessary magical materials…

Who am I, really?

An ordinary teenager or a powerful lich?

Quickly comparing the two sets of memories, I found that the lich’s memories were sparse—fragmentary at best.

On the other hand, I remembered quite a lot of my human life.

It seemed that I had transmigrated into this lich’s body.

It was strange—one was a lich, and the other an ordinary teenager.

The two shouldn’t have had any connection at all.

Why did I transmigrate?

There must be some hidden reason!

But the personality of the ordinary Earth teenager didn’t doubt who he was at all.

Still, looking around at the grim, eerie surroundings… for now, it was probably better to act as an ancient, powerful lich.

I picked myself up off the ground, taking out a material pouch from memory to collect the wolf pelt and bones, while calmly thinking about my next move.

…Alright, I had no idea what to do next.

Despite losing my emotions, my mediocre brain clearly couldn’t think like a wise man.

Was this the limit of mortal intellect?

As for the lich’s memories… saying they were “fragmentary” might not be accurate enough; they were practically nonexistent.

I couldn’t even remember my original body’s appearance, my name in this other world, two hundred years’ worth of magical research—not a single bit—nor what I had come out to find today.

Resigned, I slung the material pouch over my shoulder and started heading back toward the mage tower in my memory.

My current body seemed to be just a puppet created by this lich.

‘But why go to the trouble of making a female body as a puppet?

Wouldn’t a strong male body be more convenient?

Is there some limitation?’

Anyway, I’d find my phylactery first and get my original body back, then look for books on constructing lich bodies.

Liches here didn’t seem to look like skeletons like they did in World of Warcraft, which was nice.

Even if they used someone else’s corpse, it was still better than being a skeleton.

Along the way, I kept encountering mad demonic creatures.

I continuously repeated the spells lingering in my memory—”Wither,” “Decay,” and the like—using them to unleash dark power and kill those reckless monsters.

It seemed those were all I knew; I had no memory of any other spells.

That wasn’t good at all!

Continuously killing monsters also made me understand just what kind of place the demon realm was.

I sure knew how to pick a spot, didn’t I?

Wasn’t I afraid of encountering something more dangerous?

Or was I already strong enough to not fear the demon realm’s dangers?

Even my fragmented memories suggested that liches possessed infinite magical power and immense strength.

So I was probably pretty strong now.

But I was clearly weaker than before.

Could I survive here?

Maybe I should leave…

After walking a considerable distance, I finally reached my dwelling place in the demon realm—a towering lich tower.

As soon as I entered, a beautiful maid-like girl greeted me warmly and took the pouch from my hands.

“Welcome back, Master.”

Her crisp, pleasant voice reached my ears.

It was nice to hear a warm voice in such a terrifying place—even if my emotions felt flat.

So I had a maid here too… though she was most likely undead.

“What kind of creature are you?

A banshee?

A vampire?”

I decided to ask bluntly.

The maid tilted her head strangely at my question, but answered without hesitation.

“I am a vampire, Master.”

My fragmented memories told me they were a cunning race.

How did one become my maid?

Past me must have been really strong.

“Good.”

I nodded and continued, “Then, do you know where my phylactery is?”

The phylactery—the key to a lich’s immortality.

Such an important object would definitely be hidden in a very secret place.

I’d worried about not being able to find it on the way, since I’d lost most of my memories.

But now that I had a maid, I could ask her…

“I’m very sorry, Master.

I… I don’t know where your phylactery is.”

The maid quickly lowered her head.

Though I couldn’t see her expression, I figured she must feel guilty for not answering her master’s question—her body was even trembling slightly.

I had expected she might not know.

After all, it was the thing that held my life in its grasp.

In a world like this, there might very well be ways to search someone’s memories, exposing the phylactery’s location—just like in some novels.

“Never mind.

But I want to read some books now.

Take me to the library.”

“Yes, Master.”

Her voice was a little shaky.

Was it not guilt, but… fear of me?

Since liches were powerful and evil, she might be afraid I’d punish her.

“Don’t be scared.

I was just asking.”

“…Thank you, Master.”

After I reassured her, the maid seemed much better.

Still, was it really necessary to be that frightened just for not answering one question?

The inside of the lich tower was very tidy.

On the way, I saw many fascinating things—brooms sweeping by themselves, patrolling skeletons, glowing stones lighting the path.

All of it reinforced the reality that I was now in another world.

Standing on something that looked like a magic circle, the scenery around me instantly changed to another location.

It seemed I had arrived at the library.

“Alright.

Go put those things away.”

“Yes.”

The maid then left.

Now then, it was time to read and research.

Whether it was information about this world, crafting a body to my liking, or the spells I’d forgotten—in any case, I needed to absorb as much information as possible and strengthen myself quickly.

This place was obviously a dangerous demon realm.

It would be bad if something happened.

Liches didn’t need to sleep or eat, so I could search as much as I wanted.

Over the next few days, I searched the lich’s library alone for important materials.

Instincts buried deep in my memory allowed me to roughly read this world’s language.

I learned some simple necromancy, like summoning zombies and skeletons; some simple transmutation spells, like Levitation and Light; and some simple illusions, like Calm and Rage.

Why could I only understand and learn simple spells?

Because I couldn’t comprehend the advanced ones at all!

Forgive me for having only a mediocre brain.

There were so many books I couldn’t understand here.

Even without sleep, I searched tirelessly for half a day and couldn’t find much basic content.

More regrettably, I couldn’t find any information about the phylactery’s location.

That was expected, though.

At least I learned how to possess a soulless body.

But how was I supposed to get a decent body in the demon realm?

Just as I was about to continue searching, the maid appeared before me.

“Master, there’s someone outside who claims to be your friend looking for you.”

“Friend?”

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