Chapter 96

Foreshadowing (2)

The Immortal King.

The being who plunged the world into terror by turning every citizen of the Balkan Kingdom into undead—an immortal army.

Undead fundamentally had no need for supplies, which made them an overwhelmingly powerful military force.

On top of that, they could raise the enemy’s corpses as undead, making their opponents experience firsthand what it meant to be hopelessly outnumbered.

But did that mean necromancy, the foundation of all undead magic, had always been evil?

No.

It had only been strictly prohibited by the Holy Kingdom after the incident involving the Immortal King. Before that, it had been a form of magic anyone could use.

Title) It’s a shame about necromancy

Necromancy was genuinely useful if you used it properly.

You didn’t even need human corpses. You could use monster or animal corpses and replace manual labor with them.

I don’t think necromancy itself is bad. The people who misuse it are the problem.

└ You want to legalize necromancy and end up with another Immortal King? Absolutely not.

└ Then what about other kinds of magic? Isn’t misuse the real problem? Other offensive magic is evil if you abuse it too.

└ That’s true, but the Central Plains never viewed necromancy favorably to begin with. If only the Holy Kingdom had banned it, maybe things would be different, but the Central Plains joining in made a huge difference.

└ Even so, banning it outright is a bit much;;

└ Exactly. What about people who died before they could even leave a final message?

└ It’s basically like an entire promising profession disappeared overnight. A lot of things became much more troublesome because of that.

Title) If only the Immortal King had never existed

Then my father probably wouldn’t have been executed.

└ That’s rough. A lot of people resent the Holy Kingdom because of things like that.

└ My father was the greatest merchant there was.

└ ?? Why would a merchant fall because of this?

└ Fuck, don’t tell me this bastard’s dad was a grave robber??

└ Sounds more like he was involved in human trafficking than grave robbing;;

└ What kind of fucking lunatic was he;;

└ He should’ve had his head chopped off ages ago lmaoooo.

└ Is it because of people like that that necromancy’s reputation got even worse?

└ That’s an extreme case. Normally they used corpses of unidentified people.

└ It’s basically the same logic as condemning all pharmacists because one of them made illegal drugs.

└ And human trafficking isn’t even something unique to necromancy. He’s just forcing a connection.

Necromancy was an unsettling form of magic, not an inherently evil one.

In fact, it had provided the world with numerous benefits, both large and small.

The most representative example was replacing simple manual labor.

It had contributed greatly to agriculture in particular—the starting point and foundation of human civilization.

An ox died?

Use necromancy to raise it again.

Not enough workers?

Ask a necromancer to provide labor.

Human corpses could also be used, though doing so required going through rather strict procedures.

Most people especially despised the use of necromancy in war, so there was an unspoken rule prohibiting it.

If a country used necromancy in warfare, it could hardly complain if the rest of the world treated it as an international pariah.

Title) Necromancy really is creepy, though

Honestly, bringing dead bodies back to life is ominous by itself.

It gives off an evil vibe, and there’s just something disturbing about corpses.

└ (Photo of a Death Knight riding a horse) A skeleton horse looks fucking badass though.

└ Damn. After seeing that, I’ve decided I’m resurrecting a horse with necromancy.

└ You’re gonna get arrested by the Holy Kingdom;;

└ Then I’ll just ride away on the horse.

Title) Just laying out the facts

Was the Immortal King evil? Yes.

Did the Holy Kingdom overreact? Yes.

Is necromancy creepy magic? Yes.

If they’d only banned using it on humans, that would’ve been one thing, but people are pissed because they banned necromancy itself.

They also claim it summons the souls of the dead, but even that’s uncertain.

Have you ever seen a basic labor skeleton with a sense of self? I haven’t.

I think it’s less that they have egos and more that some spirit-like entity inhabits them, like with a Protector.

The corpses simply carry out the orders they’re given.

└ Then what about people who claim they summoned their ancestors through necromancy?

└ That’s only possible when you have a definite medium or one of the deceased’s personal belongings.

└ Then what about liches and Death Knights?

They’re both closer to monsters, so that comparison doesn’t really mean much. Think of goblin shamans, orc shamans, or gnoll magicians.

└ What’s your job? Are you a professor or something?

└ I’m just a gallery loser sitting at home.

└ Get the fuck out lmaooo.

└ Everything sounded convincing until I saw that. My trust just plummeted lmaooo.

└ What kind of analysis is a gallery shut-in doing? Lmaooo.

After the Immortal King incident nearly covered the world in corpses, necromancy came to be regarded as evil magic.

Several highly respected mages and scholars argued that it was unwise to simply abandon necromancy altogether, but their voices meant little.

Too many people had been harmed by the Immortal King’s actions or had lost someone they loved.

At least for the current generation, necromancy would never be seen again.

That was what everyone believed.

Title) I deciphered what Grylls uploaded

The language of the Balkan Kingdom has almost completely disappeared, and this version was used by the upper classes, so it was difficult to translate.

But everything in here is shocking as hell. If this is genuine, the Holy Kingdom is going to be in serious trouble.

└ What’s it say? Earlier someone said the Holy Kingdom carried out a massacre.

└ The established story is that the Immortal King appeared first and then the Holy Kingdom intervened, right? But according to this, the order is reversed. The Holy Kingdom massacred the people of the Balkan Kingdom first, and that is what caused the Immortal King to emerge;;

└ How does that make any sense? That shouldn’t even be possible;;

└ The Balkan Kingdom had a relatively small population, and the Holy Kingdom was overwhelmingly powerful, so maybe that’s how.

└ No. What I’m asking is why the Holy Kingdom would massacre the people of the Balkan Kingdom in the first place. There has to be a reason.

└ It says they asked the Balkan Kingdom to lend them its power so they could defeat the Demon King. When the Balkan Kingdom refused, the Holy Kingdom wiped them out as an example;;

└ Fucking hell;;

└ If that’s true, "serious trouble" doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Title) There were actually a lot of suspicious points

According to people who were close to the Balkan Kingdom, the Immortal King had originally been closer to a benevolent ruler.

It’s true that the Immortal King was highly skilled in necromancy, but he strictly prohibited necromancy involving the dead.

If there was a special reason, however, he would allow it through proper procedures.

The Balkan Kingdom may have been small, but its people had no trouble making a living.

Its national power was weak compared to other countries, but considering the size of its territory, its people were actually fairly prosperous.

So why would a man who knew how to be satisfied suddenly become the Immortal King and try to devour the world?

And why would he go so far as to turn every single one of his own people into undead?

They said it was to conquer the world, but unless someone was completely insane, they wouldn’t do something like that.

Being alive was what made conquest meaningful in the first place, so why would he do something like this?

└ So you’re saying you think the Holy Kingdom has something shady going on behind the scenes too?

└ Yeah, but only here in the gallery lol.

└ Well, if they get rattled by rumors that started in the gallery, that’d basically prove they have something to hide lol.

└ I don’t understand why records like that would even be in the Forest of Four Seasons.

└ People are just making a big fuss over nothing lol.

When the shocking revelation first began spreading through the gallery, the users didn’t believe it.

The contents were difficult enough to accept on their own, and more importantly, they had been discovered in the Forest of Four Seasons.

The truth suddenly emerges from a book found while exploring the most remote place imaginable?

└ So you’re saying Grylls deliberately went looking for it? In the Forest of Four Seasons?

└ That doesn’t make sense either. You just have to chalk it up to ridiculous luck.

└ Look at how fast you accepted that explanation lmaooo.

Title) If anything, the Forest of Four Seasons makes it more believable

If the Holy Kingdom really tried to kill everyone in the Balkan Kingdom, it makes sense that someone would flee to the Forest of Four Seasons.

The Immortal King probably sent his scribe there as a last resort too. If he was going to die either way, there was nothing to lose.

└ That actually sounds plausible.

└ Even if he left records behind, there would’ve been no one to read them anyway.

└ Except the person who found them was Wild Grylls lmaooo. The one bastard who can use the gallery from inside the Forest of Four Seasons.

└ What kind of coincidence is this? Lmaooo.

Paradoxically, that was precisely what made the story more credible.

Grylls had even uploaded the related books to the gallery in their entirety.

If he’d only posted selected excerpts, people might have accused him of manipulating the narrative.

But since he’d gone to the trouble of uploading everything, that accusation couldn’t easily be made.

And as had been mentioned many times before, the gallery was a form of technology accessible to anyone, regardless of age or gender, so long as they met the necessary conditions.

That was more than enough for scholars scattered across the world to gather beneath Grylls’s posts and debate the contents.

Title) The more I think about it, the more random this feels

(Photo of an elf tilting their head)

Grylls finds records related to the Immortal King while exploring?

Doesn’t this feel way too sudden?

And Asella—the gallery’s head moderator, Don’t Abandon the Hero—was also watching the situation unfold.

She stared at the gallery with confusion in her eyes.

As both a devout believer and the current Hero, she had just been confronted with a truth that was almost impossible for her to accept.

’W-What is this...?’

The truth surrounding the Immortal King, the worst necromancer and tyrant in recorded history.

History stated that the Immortal King, consumed by excessive ambition, had turned every citizen of his kingdom into undead.

To stop him, the previous Hero and her partner, the mage Kadir, had personally taken action to thwart his ambitions.

During that battle, the Hero had sacrificed herself heroically, and Kadir had ultimately defeated the Immortal King.

...That was the history known to the world.

’N-No way! The Holy Kingdom would never do something like that...!’

The material Grylls had uploaded contained events so vile that they sounded like a conspiracy theory.

Grylls himself had only posted them because he wanted the records left behind by his great senior deciphered, but their impact was far beyond anything he could have imagined.

A truth that could never be revealed to the world.

The dark underside of the Holy Kingdom, a nation devoted to worshipping the gods.

Only the beginning had been deciphered so far, but it could be summarized like this:

The organization formed to defeat the Demon King had instead created the Demon King.

There wasn’t even a trace of justice to be found in the story.

The revelation struck Asella deeply.

’Y-Yes. It has to be a lie. If something like this really happened, the Goddess would never have forgiven it...’

The Holy Kingdom was a nation that worshipped the gods.

There was no way such a country could have created a Demon King.

Asella tried to rationalize it and calm her pounding heart.

For now, her priority was settling the gallery, which had gone beyond chaos and was on the verge of overflowing entirely.

’Should I... delete Mr. Grylls’s posts?’

The third rule of the gallery:

Posts that create tension between nations are prohibited.

Grylls’s posts were a perfect violation of that rule.

The prohibition against excessive fraternization only applied to relationships formed in the real world, so that wasn’t an issue.

’But Mr. Grylls himself posted them without thinking anything of it...’

She couldn’t help hesitating.

More importantly, there was an even larger problem.

If she deleted Grylls’s posts, people would become even more convinced that the contents were true.

It might actually be better to leave them untouched.

Asella had her foolish side, but she was by no means stupid.

’For now, it would be better not to delete these posts.’

The information had probably already spread as far as it could.

She’d been physically occupied until moments ago and hadn’t had the chance to check the gallery.

’If the Holy Kingdom really did this...’

Shake! Shake!

Asella violently shook her head, trying to drive away the thoughts creeping into her mind.

The real world was still quiet.

Even if controversy broke out, the Holy Kingdom could simply deny everything.

’This chaos might remain confined to the gallery.’

Problems that erupted inside the gallery rarely spilled over into the real world.

It was essentially a tempest in a teacup.

Of course, things would be different if concrete evidence existed.

For example, the books Grylls claimed to have found.

If those books ended up in someone else’s hands, that would change things.

’Even then, it would be difficult unless that person had considerable prestige.’

There was still time.

Asella decided to wait and see how the Holy Kingdom responded.

She desperately hoped none of it was true, but...

’The Goddess hasn’t said anything at all, so it must be false.’

Given the circumstances she herself was currently facing, dark emotions began creeping into her heart.

’It has to be.’

***

While the gallery was in complete uproar—

"Ahh. That was a good nap."

Grylls woke from an exceptionally satisfying afternoon nap.

The first thing he did after waking was check the gallery.

He wanted to see whether anything had been deciphered.

After seeing the chaos filling the gallery, only one thought crossed his mind.

"Looks like they still haven’t translated the part I actually wanted."

He was disappointed.