Chapter 112. A Matter of Mood (3)

A cool breeze blew through the air, gradually sweeping away the scent of blood from the guards. By now, I had sufficiently tested all of my newly acquired skills, such as Martial Arts, Swordsmanship, Cleave, Acid, and Suction.

The twenty corpses lay scattered around me, each having met a gruesome death through a different method.

Hmm...

I glanced at the prisoners sitting behind me. A flicker of hope flashed across their faces even after witnessing the slaughter.

Swoosh!

I pulled the sword from the last remaining guard’s chest. Then I shook off the blood and smoke clinging to the blade.

Sizzle!

I was about to deactivate the Acid skill when people started thanking me.

"Thank you!" one exclaimed.

"Truly, thank you!" another chimed in.

An elderly man among them cautiously lifted his head. "I am Yurad Kazel, former chief administrator of Yublam. Might I ask... are you an earl from the Empire?"

Imperial Law flashed through my mind. Earls of the Empire held the authority to investigate and execute criminal law. Earls were a rank just below a marquis within the Empire’s twenty-tier hierarchy.

How should I respond?

I studied the old man. Despite his age, his voice was clear, his was expression firm, and he spoke without stuttering. His facial features bore a striking resemblance to the young administrator whose father had been executed.

"Why do you think so?" I asked.

"You have conducted an investigation and executed justice upon the guilty. Furthermore, you wield sword aura with ease. You must hold an official rank of nine or higher."

Sizzle!

I glanced between my still-corroding sword and the old man.

This isn’t sword aura.

"I studied at the capital in my youth. I once saw the burning aura of the knight commander’s blade. What you have just displayed is the same," the old man explained.

He’s seen it before? And he thinks this is sword aura?

I hesitated.

Is he jumping to conclusions? Or is something else at play?

For a moment, I weighed my options. If this was a misunderstanding, I could use it to my advantage. If someone was trying to push me toward a particular outcome, I might as well take the reins and steer the situation myself.

[Activating Masquerade!]

[Temporarily overlays a human appearance over your face. You will take on the likeness of the most recent, notable human you’ve seen.]

Everything about this was fine, except for one inconvenient detail.

[Transformation: Leandro von Batyenne]

[Resemblance: 65%]

[Unmatched portions will be randomly adjusted.]

[Duration: 10 minutes]

[Cooldown: 6 hours]

Masquerade was a skill I had absorbed from Elwin. It wasn't my first time using it; I had experimented with it while training Rena in the mountains. The transformation only altered my face, leaving my skeletal body unchanged. However, with my armor covering everything below my neck, my reflection in the water had looked human enough.

Still, there was one critical issue.

Why him, of all people?

To make it worse, the resemblance was sloppy. Anyone familiar with the marquis would never mistake me for him.

However, at least the hair color was convincing.

Clank.

Whoosh!

As I removed my helmet, my ash-blue hair fluttered in the wind. I locked eyes with each of the prisoners who had lifted their heads.

The old man gasped and bowed deeply. "Th-that hair! Surely—!"

I confidently said, "It is I, Leandro von Batyenne, imperial earl, commanding you."

"We greet the earl! I beg you, punish my insolence with death for daring to question your identity!" the old man cried out.

Murmurs rippled through the group as all the prisoners hurriedly bowed before me.

Well, this works.

No one here would have seen the marquis’ face up close. Earlier, when testing my knowledge of Imperial Law, I had mimicked his manner of speech, which was now proving to be useful.

I originally hoped to take on a more forgettable, ordinary face. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

Someday, when my skill level increases, I'll definitely transform into someone completely different.

Thud.

I searched the captain’s corpse, pulled out a key, and tossed it to the shackled prisoners.

"Deliver this message to the Lord of Yublam. He has two days to take his own life. If he still draws breath after that, I will personally throw him into the opium den."

Whispers of joy spread throughout the group.

The old man’s eyes gleamed with renewed vigor. "We will make sure he receives your message!"

The people carefully supported each other as they retreated into the distance.

Did I do the right thing?

After everyone was out of sight, I rummaged through the security chief’s corpse. I already knew what was hidden in his inner pocket.

Glint!

Unlike in my previous life, where I had found it half-melted, the gold coin was now pristine, gleaming under the light.

This is it.

It was a seiron coin bearing the name of the first emperor. It was forged from ninety percent gold and ten percent mithril, the largest coin in circulation. After two lifetimes alongside Rena, I had developed a habit of hoarding anything shiny. I took only what was in the captain’s pockets, leaving the scattered silver coins untouched. Someone would pick them up.

If someone was desperate enough to rummage through rotting corpses, then they deserved to claim a few silver pieces.

Maybe I should’ve given them to the prisoners earlier.

However, it was too late now. I looked down at the twenty corpses I had created.

This should be enough...

By now, I was much stronger than most humans. A squad of twenty armed guards, a group seasoned in battle, accustomed to hunting people. I had easily wiped them out as if they were nothing but playthings.

Hmm...

As the exhilaration slowly faded, a small concern crept in.

I impersonated the marquis... He won’t come after me, right?

An odd legal clause suddenly surfaced in my mind.

[Imperial Penal Code, Article 93: Crime of Identity Fraud.]

Clank.

I chuckled quietly at the absurdity of recalling identity fraud after massacring twenty men.

He probably won’t come after me.

Under normal circumstances, the marquis wouldn’t even visit Yublam. Besides, he wasn’t the type to concern himself with trivial matters like this. His rage was entirely fixated on the murder of his knight commander, Isabelle Simone, and his beloved horse, Miyu.

Now, let’s collect the silver ingots.

Whoosh!

With Sprint Lv. 4, I sped toward the buried silver.

The landscape blurred past me. Reaching the remaining two burial sites took no time at all.

This should be the place...

Like the first site, it had been well-concealed. However...

[Activating Detection Lv. 5!]

That effort was meaningless.

By the time I unearthed the silver from the third location, the moon had already risen into the evening sky.

Ting!

The high-purity silver ingots shimmered faintly under the moonlight.

Rena will love this.

I gathered them all into my pouch. This silver had been produced by enslaving and drugging humans with opium, but the silver itself was blameless. Gold and silver were neutral, neither good nor evil.

After meeting the Starlight Blue Fox’s captain, I saw things differently now. I recalled the conversation I had with Elwin previously.

"Why doesn’t that man ask anything about me?"

"It's because he believes in shiny things. Quite a refined worldview, isn’t it?"

That captain had seen me, a Skeleton, yet asked no questions. He hadn’t attacked me, either. There really were people out there who cared only for wealth, regardless of species. In a world ruled by humans, a balance scale made of gold and silver was far more likely to aid me than harm me.

Captain, I wanted to meet you properly.

What a waste of a man.

I could still picture him swinging from the mast, strangled by the marquis who had snuck aboard the ship.

The captain was someone I would have liked to strike a deal with. If I had established a trade route with him, he might have introduced me to more allies with similar mindsets.

The autumn night wind howled.

Whoosh.

The barren wasteland, devoid of leaves, stirred only with dust carried by the breeze. Shaking off my thoughts, I remembered one more thing to do before heading to Yublam.

It’s nearby.

The Spider Den was close.

Whoosh!

It was my first time visiting at night. The gnarled, dead trees looked even eerie under the moonlight.

I stepped inside. The spiders here weren’t much stronger than the guards I had fought earlier.

Detection.

I could sense the spiders moving within a set radius, not just in front and behind me, but also within the scattered holes. In the long, narrow tunnels, every movement was clear. With Detection Lv. 5, I perceived the presence of enemies in perfect spherical awareness, allowing me to combat entirely on a new level.

"Screech! Screech!"

A spider had detected me. It crouched from deep within a winding tunnel, preparing to leap out. However, I had sensed it long before it reached the entrance.

Dealing with them one by one is a hassle...

[Activating Stealth Lv. 5!]

My presence vanished completely.

"Screech? Screech?"

Sensing the spider’s confusion, I smirked and walked past it. Slipping past the weaker ones unnoticed, I ventured deeper into the dungeon.

I had once struggled through this dungeon and used Grassmere’s Fire to burn my way through. Now, such efforts were unnecessary. I could cut them down one by one with my sword or ignore them altogether using Stealth.

"Screech."

Advancing further, I pushed open a heavy iron door. Beyond it stretched a gorge-like chamber.

Immediately, six spiders lunged at me from all directions.

"Screech! Screech!"

I guess I still have some limits.

I wasn’t skilled enough to maintain Stealth while opening doors. Instead, I leaped straight down into the gorge.

Thud!

[Due to Martial Arts Lv. 7, fall damage is reduced by 55%!]

[Health has decreased by 4.5%!]

That hurt a bit...

The moment I landed, the spiders at the entrance tensed up after momentarily losing sight of me. Meanwhile, the ravenous spiders within the gorge surged forward from all sides.

Chitter! Chitter! Chitter!

If you insist on dying...

***

[Level up!]

[...]

[Level up!]

I gained five levels instantly. After killing the guards, I had invested most of my stats into Agility. With the spiders, I funneled everything into Strength instead.

Clank.

"Quiet."

Deeper inside the gorge, I glanced around at the ruined temple’s numerous spider carvings.

Do they look different at night?

The carvings seemed unusually vivid. I stared at them, but they didn’t move.

Hmm...

I stepped further into the gorge, walking across uneven black stones. All the spiders had vanished after their initial attack.

I looked ahead toward a deep pit at the far end.

"Webslinger, this is our third meeting already," I muttered.