Chapter 347

For now, we decided to hurry and move to enter the Oasis’s domain again.

Sleeping in the open where a Jiangshi might be roaming around was absurd. The only thing we could trust right now was that it was peaceful in the Oasis’s domain, so it was better to move our camp there. Fortunately, Elwin said the next Oasis’s domain wasn’t far, so we could set our direction without going back the way we came.

The ones walking were the camels, and I chose my words while being carried on their backs. What I knew, what the children needed to know. Because I had faced Jiangshis for a considerable amount of time, I could quickly sort out useful words.

“Last time, the Oasis… Didn’t the Third God say something strange followed me and crossed over.”

“Ung, he did.”

“I suspect that trash might be the one controlling those ‘Jiangshis’.”

“…What was the name?”

“Jiangshi.”

“Jiangshi…”

I wondered if the pronunciation was difficult, but Ruben repeated it well. I let out a sigh once and continued speaking.

“That guy was called the ‘Thousand-Faced Evil Ghost’ because he was said to have a thousand faces, and he tried to raise all the corpses on the continent while leading several direct disciples.”

“Thousand-Faced Whew… What?”

At Marianne’s question, I calmly rephrased.

“There was just a son of a bitch like that.”

“Uung, the name is fine. Anyway, keep talking.”

The Sylphs sent to look around the surroundings hovered around like kites high up there, and only the sound of our group walking echoed crisply in the empty desert. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Fearing someone might eavesdrop, I explained slowly in a small voice.

“The dead, without distinguishing between commoners and martial artists, received a wicked energy and rose again to kill people. Because the place where I was had no monsters and only humans and beasts lived… there were very many who feared this strange phenomenon.”

There were also very many who took their own lives out of fear. Recalling the familiar faces made me choke up again.

“The fact that this was not a god’s punishment, but that son of a bitch using sorcery to control corpses, was revealed later. Not only this guy, but arts utilizing the blood and corpses of humans and beasts became prevalent, and thousands more died.”

“Is there only one type of Jiangshi?”

“As far as I know… there are three. Living Jiangshi, Iron Jiangshi, Blood Jiangshi. A Living Jiangshi is just the dead moving again and trying to harm people. An Iron Jiangshi has skin and bones as hard as steel like the one we saw today, so it cannot be cut without using sword energy. And a Blood Jiangshi is…”

The more I spoke, the shorter my breath became. I calmly caught my breath and settled my mind.

“It is fed to the brim with human blood, so its skin is red. A Jiangshi that can use martial arts, meaning the sword arts it used while alive, even after death, was called that.”

The corpses of commoners mostly became Living Jiangshis, and the corpses of martial artists mostly transformed into Iron Jiangshis or Blood Jiangshis.

At first, thinking the Taoists would be able to solve it since it was a bizarre phenomenon, we put the Taoists of the Nine Great Sects at the forefront. We only realized that Left-Handed Arts (Taoist arts other than martial arts performed on a spiritual level using talismans or items) didn’t work on Jiangshis at all after dozens of Taoists rose up as Jiangshis.

Even if you kill them, they don’t die, they attack without distinguishing day or night, and they become tattered as time passes; what else could you call them but evil ghosts. Watching the Jiangshis occasionally bursting into mad laughter with tearing voices made me feel like I was standing in the middle of the underworld.

Afterward, when the martial artists of the Orthodox Faction lost their friends and relatives, they tore the corpses to shreds and defiled them. It was to prevent them from reviving, but it was a horrific experience.

Marianne, who had listened to my entire story, answered in a serious tone.

“There is corpse summoning in black magic too. It’s almost at the level of an urban legend, though… They say they usually use monster corpses. Not using human corpses isn’t for ethical reasons, but because it’s more inefficient.”

“Inefficient?”

“Yes, the amount of Mana accumulated in an ordinary human body is actually not much. Humans constantly consume and expend energy, you see. Besides, although the reason isn’t clear, they lose a large amount of Mana once they die. If it’s as the god of the Oasis said, it’s probably because they lose their soul.”

“…”

Oasis had said a human’s soul is a lump of Mana, I docilely kept listening.

“I don’t know how it is on that side, but the knights here accumulate Mana in their bodies, right? [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Knights become young and healthy as Aura acts on their bodies, but because mages rotate Mana in their circles and extract the toxins in time, their physical abilities aren’t much different from ordinary people.”

“…”

“Perhaps the reason the corpses of the knights in that world became stronger Jiangshis was…. maybe because of that…”

There was something that suddenly came to mind.

“The incident where the Sword Master’s corpse disappeared, perhaps.”

“…Yes, probably. If they were gathering knights or mercenaries heavily imbued with Mana to perform some ritual, of course there would have been a Sword Master mixed among them. If there were people who resisted, they would have been killed too. Even if the ones they could take alive were offered to the ninth god to use their souls, the corpses of the dead… might have been… recycled.”

“…Recycled.”

“Or it could just be bad luck, and they might have been handed over to different organizations.”

There wasn’t just one or two things I could guess. Mutated monsters whose hides turned black, the disappeared Imperial Knights, kidnapped mercenaries, the lost Sword Master’s corpse, the suspicious oracle… My mind was in complete chaos. The entire group closed their mouths for a while and sank into this and that thought.

Only the camels, unable to understand the words, walked leisurely.

How much time had passed?

The red moon slanted down slowly and took its place in the western sky. The white moon quietly followed behind it. The darkened sky wrapped itself in the light of thousands of stars and undulated like a veil. Elwin, who was walking way ahead, stood in place, pulling and loosening his camel’s reins.

“Here.”

“From here on it’s the Oasis’s domain again?”

“Mm.”

According to Elwin’s explanation involving hand and foot gestures, the Oasis’s domain seemed to act as a sort of safety barrier. Not all oases in the desert have such a function, but such an effect can only be seen in places imbued with divine power above a certain scale.

Hearing the explanation that particularly the closer you get to the water source in the center, the more impure things cannot approach, I felt relieved. Just in case, we walked about twenty minutes further inside the Oasis’s domain and pitched our tents.

Because it was the dead of night, we didn’t prepare another meal. Everyone shared dry bread, jerky, and a few types of cheese and went into their tents early. Because we set several sentries besides the Sylphs, the spacious tent was empty.

Elwin, Hugh Benson, and the mercenaries said they would take turns guarding outside. I also volunteered, but Hugh Benson refused. His reasoning was that if something happens, I, who knows best about Jiangshis, must take the lead in fighting, so I should conserve my stamina.

Those words sounded right, so I docilely lay down with the other children.

I couldn’t sleep because my mind was troubled, I also know well that this isn’t my fault. However, an uneasy feeling kept arising. It felt like if I closed my eyes I would see vain things, and if I held my breath, I would hear wrong things.

As I tossed and turned this way and that, Ruben turned his body toward me and reached out his arm.

What is the child trying to do? Soothe me. Feeling expectant, I stayed still. Ruben reached out and gently stroked my cheek. His callused hand moved from my cheek to my ear, then grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me close. And buried me deep into his chest.

“…Hah.”

“Sleep well, Mika.”

“…”

I was greatly startled.

My mind, which had been complicated with things like Jiangshis and Thousand-Faced Evil Ghosts, became palely empty.

The sound of his breathing was heard from right above the crown of my head. The child’s throbbing heartbeat was so close it felt like it was ringing inside my head. Uncontrollably fluttering at the sweet, soft body scent and the hotly flushed body temperature, I couldn’t keep my senses straight.

Every place my cheek touched was so soft I couldn’t bring myself to lean on it, I just blankly blinked my eyes.

I stayed in a daze without getting my senses straight for a long time like that. When I barely managed to push him away and try to pull my body out, the child completely grabbed one of my arms and placed it on his slender waist. At the sensation of his chin rubbing against the top of my head, my whole body stiffened rigidly. Afraid I might make a mistake and do something wicked, I couldn’t move an inch.

Ruben whispered in a sweet tone.

“Ung? Let’s sleep.”

“…”

How am I supposed to sleep like this?

When I held Ruben in my embrace, it was fine because I could just gently pat his broad back like soothing a child. However, now that it was reversed like this, my mind was full of sly thoughts, making me clench my teeth. Scared I might grab the child’s waist as I pleased, I kept a space in my arm to float it far away, and tilted my head back slightly too.

Ruben breathed slowly as if he were really sleeping. Blankly blinking my eyes, I quietly listened to the child’s breathing and heartbeat. The sensation of the arm resting across my shoulder gradually losing strength and becoming heavy was joyful. It was a moment when everything in the world felt like vain matters.

******

The next day.

Seeing Ruben smiling brightly and asking if I slept well, I nodded my head.

Even though my face was so hot I was curious about my complexion, it was amazing how shamelessly Ruber acted. I wondered if… it just didn’t show much on my face. Ruben once again hugged me tightly in his embrace, then got up and went to say good morning to the mercenaries.

I felt like I had been standing with my arms raised as a punishment all night. Though I wouldn’t mind receiving such a punishment for a thousand years…

While I was massaging my numb arm from keeping it afloat all night in a daze, Benjamin came beside me and peeked around. As I was swallowing a dry cough, he said a useless white lie.

“Did you perhaps offer your arm as a pillow for the Prince?”

“…Pardon?”

“Because your arm seems numb.”

“…Yes.”

Let’s just say it was that.

Marianne, who went to sleep early and woke up late completely unaware of such circumstances, stretched her body out long. The child, who tidied her messy hair well and cast a Clean magic on everyone she saw around, hugged her blanket tightly and plopped down sideways again.

I was still sitting docilely in a daze. Marianne pointed her staff at me and asked in a sleepy voice.

“Do you need recovery magic?”

“…No. It is, it is fine.”

I refused for now.

Only after both Benjamin and Marianne went outside the tent did I hug the blanket and raise my body. I knew well that lingering and not getting out of the sleeping bag was unlike me, but I simply couldn’t get up from the spot.

Anyway, I am nothing but a beast.

Letting out a long sigh, I did Qi Cultivation once while sitting in that spot.

Only after that could I barely manage to tidy up my bed.