I had successfully deceived the duchess more than once and I felt quite terrible by doing so, but can you blame me for it? I had no other option, as an undead ghost monster, and my band of monsters that I carry around, I gotta lie and deceive. No way a duchess would ally a literal ghost, right? So I cannot really tell her the truth completely, and I have to create lies after lies, which keep piling up… if I ever tell her one day what I am, her entire perception of me will change, but there’s no other way.
To make friends of humans, there’s no other option. But hey, at least I am walking away from my murderhood tendencies and trying to be decent! I have had enough slaughter for now, and the duchess is nice, she’s new and fresh, and I don’t got any grudge against her, she’s a new generation, and I am sure she’ll guide this duchy to the glory it once had. I am rather interested in making money honestly for some time as well, and she can provide me with a lot of resources very easily too, without having to steal them and ruining the lives of people selling them, which has never been my intention.
As we sat down around a long table to eat, Julia began to bombard me with various questions regarding my job and my Rank as an Adventurer, and what other experiences in the field I’ve had..
“Well, like you saw the other time, I’ve been working mostly behind the shadows helping the needy. I got my own territory so I’ve been rescuing slaves any time I see them, I’ve despised slave trafficking for a long time, and I don’t forgive those that slave people either. Slavery is allowed in most duchies, so killing slave traders could be considered illegal.” I sighed. “But I know you think like me, this is why I am telling you this information.”
“I see, so you registered yourself in the Adventurer Guild as a façade?” Wondered Julia.
“Yeah, we registered just so we could use it for our benefit, even being a F-Rank Adventurer makes you more trustworthy and people tend to lower their guard as well. It is also a good way to give a reason behind traveling around so much to people…” I said. “I was raised in a small village by my mother and my father, since I was a child that I developed magic and powers that people often think that only witches have, such as Darkness and Shadow Magic, and Necromancy.”
“Necromancy… It is an uncommon power, and often monster such as Liches and Death Knights possess such power, so it is often attributed to monsters and evil things, but there are some people that have it and use it for good.” Said Julia. “In a duchy of this Kingdom there is a famous Necromancer Adventurer who is also a Majin, he used to be a slave but won his freedom and is respected because he’s a good alchemist… Majin are discriminated due to the church forcing stupid ideals on people, but there are some places where there are still some of them thriving, one of their greatest representatives is this man.”
“I see… I am glad that Necromancy is not seen as the evilest thing.” I sighed. “I was honestly quite afraid of revealing this to you, but I had to because it is an essential part of my capabilities… Such as that I can see the spirits of dead people.”
“Eh? Really?” Asked the girl.
“Yes, people that had died in many ways often remain resentful in the world, people cannot see them unless they become an Undead such as a zombie, a skeleton, or a ghost… But when they don’t transform, they’re harmless wandering souls, some call them dead spirits. Spiritualists can also see them and communicate with them, but due to being a Necromancer, they feel naturally attracted to me and I can speak to them more easily…” I said. “That Familiar I showed to you is something like a dead spirit I have created. I call them Ghost Snakes.”
“I had actually left it here when you brought us to your manor… I apologize for having done something like that, but I wanted to make sure you were not someone that was deceiving me…” I sighed.
“Y-You spied on me?!” Asked Julia. “Sigh… W-Well, you saved my life so I guess I have to forgive you this time, but I hope you don’t do that again… Geez…” Julia sighed while blushing a bit.
“I didn’t spied you while you were nude, most of the time the snake was behind the bed sleeping…” I sighed. “Don’t worry.”
“Eh?! I-I didn’t said anything of the sort!” She said while pouting.
“Haha, don’t worry.” I laughed. “Anyways, what do we do now that we are here? I was planning on searching for clues about the ones selling the drugs, are there more slave sellers we need to deal with?”
“Yes, I have already spotted the hideout of another big area where they’re keeping around a dozen of slaves, but due to the lack of personnel I haven’t been able to raid it, there is also a lot of unknown factors we need to investigate…” Sighed Julia.
She quickly took a folder filled with papers and gave them to me, they contained information about what she had found out, a group of thieves named Dark Eyes had been taking over the red-light district and kidnapping children who are homeless, from orphanages, and also women. There had been several cases of women that were even low-ranked adventurers that lived there and even prostitutes that suddenly disappeared, they all lead to these people, and some witnessers said that they were knocked out by some mysterious men before their friends or companions were taken away by force.
…Seriously, what’s with this stupid country’s obsession with slavery? Every little thug is just enslaving and enslaving, I guess they have yet to learn a lesson. Oh yes, they’ll learn one in hell, that’s it.