After talking about everything, our teatime was over, Julia insisted on letting us rest for the night before doing anything, as the sun was already setting in the horizon, but I really wanted some hot EXP, so I had to decline.
“Sorry but we are pretty worried about these Undead, we might as well go check them and get that over with… Are you oaky if we purify them or do you prefer that we keep the corpses as intact as we can?” I wondered.
“Well the noble families might complain if they know that their grandparents suddenly dissipated into ashes…” She sighed. “I know it is selfish but if possible, could you try to keep the corpses?”
“Okay, it’s gonna be pretty gruesome to get to identify them one by one from who they used to be though, are you sure?”
“Well if there’s no other way you can also just purify them, don’t feel forced to change your way of fighting because of their selfish desires. I will try to appease them if they ever get angered… I’ve always thought that its better to cremate the bodies of the dead than putting up a graveyard, but the nobles value even the corpses of their death so they have insisted on keeping the graveyard for generations… Of course, commoners don’t get the same treatment, they’re either put somewhere outside or cremated.” Julia said. It seems that nobles are the annoying ones with their obsession of keeping the bodies of the dead.
“I see, well, let’s see what we can do first.” I said. “You said that they had begun to raise from the dead lately?” I asked..
“Yes, that’s right. The Priests are keeping them tightly closed inside the Graveyard but they said there is something else controlling them hiding around the big labyrinth-like graveyard… And to make it worse the new nearby dungeon has begun to spawn more monsters, so we have been barely kept a dungeon break from happening thanks to our hardworking adventurers, mercenaries, and the knights.” She said.
“Hmm… Alright, I get it now. Let’s go.”
I quickly walked out of the castle, leaving some Phantom Snakes near Julia to protect her. I wanted to leave someone from my party with her but everybody just wanted to come with me. I wasn’t in the mood to have patience for their squabbles, so I let them all come anyways.
Walking down the path to the graveyard really felt nostalgic to be honest… And… Eh? Julia came with us.
“Julia, it’s night and dangerous! Why are you here with us?!” I asked.
“I wanted to come and see with my eyes your strength!” She said. “Also, Emiliano is here, he’s a strong magician so I can be protected by him if anything happens to me.”
“Rest assured my lady.” Said Emilia with a smirk. He seemed proud of being recognized as a bodyguard.
“Okay… Then… Kuro, Raven, come out.” I said, summoning my two Undead Familiars. A large black panther with bright eyes and a giant black crow appeared, exuding a strong phantasmal aura.
“T-These are… Your Familiars?! S-So powerful! I never thought you were also a tamer!” Julia said, her eyes grew brighter in excitement, it seems she had never seen monsters this close.
“Mrao!” Kuro roared, looking at Julia a bit… unfriendly.
“CRAA!” Raven cried loudly, calming the panther.
“Okay you two, protect Julia while we are in the graveyard.” I said. I decided to spend a few System Points I had accumulated by sacrificing some of my EXP and Skill Proficiency accumulated over time and used them through the Soul Grimoire to enhance their Stats by +20%. They had yet to evolve into B Rank so I wasn’t too sure if they could protect Julia well. Maybe I am overthinking it but I got a bad feeling about this graveyard.
When we walked near the entrance, we were greeted with four priests, all of them were concentrating their mana into keeping a large holy barrier made out of many paper seals stuck in the walls of the graveyard. When we got closer we were able to see dozens if not hundreds of skeletons, zombies, and ghosts trying to get out of the graveyard. Wow, this was a serious thing, if they were left alone, they would rush into the duchy and storm it.
“Julia this is super serious! You said I had to sleep and leave it for tomorrow?! These things would overrun the duchy!” I sighed.
“I-I was just worried about if you felt tired…” She said. “Sorry, I should had requested your help right away instead of delaying it.”
“L-Lady Julia! Are these the mercenaries we were told would come to resolve the problem?” Asked one of the priests.
“Yes, they are! This is Marie, she’s a necromancer and a shadow sorceress, this is Emeraldine, an Archer and Spirit Magician, this is Lucifer, a Warrior, and this is Partner? Yeah, Partner, a Spear Knight.” Said Julia.
“O-Oh, they look strong!”
“Hm, there’s… something odd…”
“Eh? What are you talking about?”
One of the priests suddenly noticed something weird about us… Ah, he is probably keen to Undead, isn’t he? If he felt something weird about us and find out we are Undead, our whole façade is going to get destroyed!
“There’s something very weird about-“
Gorgon’s Cursed Eyes: Paralysis!
“Agh! Cough! Cough! Aagh…”
The Priest suddenly fell to his knees. I used Paralysis to paralyze his vocal chords so he won’t be able to speak! Hah! It will last a few days before you get to speak a single thing buddy.
“Hey! Are you alright?”
The priest attacked by my Paralysis seemed to not have realized I used the spell so he was very confused, quickly forgetting what he was about to speak, as he was brought into the city hurriedly.
I let out a small phantom clone to possess him and quickly brainwash him a tiny bit using Possession so he won’t talk a single thing about us. That should be more than enough.