Chapter 178: Rubia (3)

Roughly six hours passed as I quietly watched her sleep. I considered fetching some water, but even in her sleep, she wouldn’t let go of me.

How inconvenient...

I glanced at her stat window. Her Strength didn’t even hit double digits, and yet I couldn’t shake her off. Maybe she possessed some kind of special skill. Just a few shared breaths, and the air in the cave had become warm and drowsy.

"

Mm... mmgh...

"

After waiting a little longer, she let out a soft moan.

"You’re awake."

Rubia rubbed her eyes gently with both hands. She looked around briefly before slowly parting her lips as her gaze fell on me.

"A dream..." Her voice, thick with sleep, drifted out loosely.

"It’s not a dream." I interrupted.

"

Hic!

"

A small gasp caught in her slender throat as she flinched. She gave a little shudder before continuing.

"That’s... what I was going to say! How did you know?"

"Just a guess."

Her eyes widened in surprise. I could feel her temperature rising.

"That’s amazing..."

She leaned toward me slowly and asked, "You really responded to my summoning, right?"

"Yes."

"Could it be...?" She hesitated for a moment, then finally voiced her concern. "Is it possible that some other strong necromancer nearby summoned you instead? Are you sure it was me? Don’t you want to confirm?"

She was right, there

was

someone absurdly powerful out there.

Gith-Za-Rai.

Assuming the worldline hadn’t shifted drastically, she would appear in the Barren Underground Tomb in three months, preparing to assassinate the emperor.

There’s something I have to tell her.

There was something I needed to deliver: a message, a warning. But not now. For now, I wanted to focus on Rubia.

"It’s certain. You were the one who woke me. The contract is established. Would you like to sever it?"

"No! Absolutely not!" She shook her head side to side. "Then... do I need to give you my soul or something? Or..."

"Soul?"

"You’re way too strong! I mean,

uh...

by the law of equivalent exchange, I figured..."

An amusing claim.

"I mean, I don’t know if my soul is worth anything, but I thought maybe... I should give you something..."

"I like it."

"You like... my soul?"

Clack.

I nodded.

"Of course."

I wanted to smile or offer a reassuring expression, but that was beyond me.

Rubia shut her eyes tightly. "Then take it! Please!"

I let out a small chuckle. Of course, I couldn’t actually take her soul. I didn’t even know how to use it, albeit someone like Isaac might. Rubia leaned her face forward as if her soul rested in her forehead.

Shff.

I extended a white, skeletal finger and gently touched her forehead. The faint warmth at my fingertip slowly radiated inward. Maybe this could be called a soul.

"It’s mine now."

"...

Ah.

" With a soft exhale, she stayed silent for a while before opening her eyes to look at me. "How... how are you so strong?"

"Me?"

"Yes. You conjured fire from your hand! You’re a mage, right?"

"Who knows."

"And also...

um

..."

"Go ahead."

Rubia’s face turned bright red. "I’m heavy!"

"...?"

"I mean... I am! You carried me while running so fast!"

I hadn’t felt any weight at all. Not once, across all my lives, had I ever thought Rubia was heavy.

"You were lighter than a feather."

Rubia doubled over slightly, letting out a sputtering laugh. "No way!"

"Didn’t even feel like I was carrying anything. If you want to be heavier, you’ll need to work harder and put on some weight."

"

Hmph...!

"

She twitched with a conflicted expression.

I watched her quietly before asking, "So, why did you summon me?"

I could’ve pretended to know everything from the start, but playing dumb wasn’t a bad strategy.

"Is there something you want to do?"

Rubia thought for a moment, then clenched her fists.

"I... I want to reclaim the castle."

That’s new.

The old Rubia never said anything like that. She only talked about going to Ember.

The reason must be...

She realized the Skeleton she summoned was far stronger than expected.

She went on, now more openly and with greater detail. "I don’t care about becoming a lord. I just want to save the people who got thrown into prison while trying to help me. Too... too many people suffered. And I ran away. I abandoned them. Do you think it’s possible?"

"..."

Of course, reclaiming the castle itself was no problem.

It’s far too easy.

Even when I was far weaker than I am now, no one in the Erast tournament came close to my level. It was just a small southern town. I could kick the gates down or leap over the walls. I could kill the current lord and the handful of followers he had, and it would be over.

The only complication was the imperial family. Installing a new lord after beheading their appointed one? I’d faced the masked ones from the imperial directly. I knew just how powerful they were. The issue was what came after.

But...

Didn’t she say the new lord was weak?

From what I gathered while torturing those two men all night, Rubia’s uncle, the current lord, was widely regarded as incompetent. So maybe the risk was lower than expected. At the end of the day, as long as whoever became lord cooperated with the imperial family, things would be fine, wouldn’t they?

That was the point. If the Empire had truly supported him, he wouldn’t have felt threatened by Rubia. The fact that he tried to kill her meant he felt at risk of being cast aside.

Maybe it’s fine if she becomes the lord.

Perhaps Erast's conquest wasn’t as dangerous as I thought. Besides, there was a quest.

[Crown Rubia as the Lord of Erast!]

[Raise her governance level to 10!]

[Reward: ???]

I reopened her status window to confirm the quest. I didn’t know what the reward would be, but it was reason enough to go for it.

She said in a voice thick with emotion, "There are people who could be executed as early as tomorrow morning... I just want to save them."

"Who’s being held?"

"Well..."

***

"Let’s go."

"Really?"

I nodded. It wouldn’t be hard. According to Rubia, the key figures in Erast who supported her had all been imprisoned. Freeing them and eliminating the human trafficking gang brought in by the current lord would tidy everything up.

Almost too easy.

The thought crossed my mind. Could a quest ranked higher than Rena’s really be this simple? But then again, I was far stronger than I was back then. Maybe S-grade quests had become trivial for me.

"Then what should I do...?"

I looked her in the eye and said confidently, "Just walk."

"Walk...?"

"Yes."

"Just walk?"

"You said you wanted to return to your place. Then walk there."

"Oh..."

I would remove every obstacle in the road ahead of her.

***

The torrential rain that had poured so fiercely last night vanished like it had never happened. Sunlight poured down brightly as Rubia walked softly in its warmth.

This is the first time I’ve come back to the entrance...

"

Ah...

"

She stood dazed on the mountain trail, speckled with countless raindrop marks. She had emerged from the cave, but seemed unsure of what to do next.

"Go to the castle. Back to your place."

"Okay!"

Her eyes wavered briefly before she nodded.

Stealth.

"Oh! I can’t see you anymore!"

"I’m next to you."

"Amazing... but what if I want to see you?"

"..."

Shff.

"

Waaah!

"

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll always be right beside you."

I faded from view again.

"

Wow

... you disappeared again!"

***

[Servant System]

[Rubia thinks you are astonishingly elusive.]

[Title acquired: The Invisible.]

[When fighting for your master, Stealth effectiveness increases by 30%.]

This is...!

The Servant System message had reappeared.

A thirty percent increase?

It was an absurdly large boost. From experience, I knew this system didn’t stop at a single perk. If just a few more of these were stacked onto the power I’d already built up, the results could be staggering. As long as I continued to act as her servant...

I wonder...

My growth would surpass anything I could achieve alone. There was a catch, of course: the bonuses only applied when fighting for my master. But as long as I stayed near Rubia, that condition would mostly be satisfied.

"I’m walking... You’re still beside me, right?"

Tap.

As I fell into thought, I quietly brushed aside rocks that could trip her. What if I handled everything that required force behind the scenes and advised her not to go against the imperial family? In that case, at least until a war broke out, or until the Demon Kings descended, wouldn’t we be able to live in peace in Erast? There was no reason to overcomplicate it.

Well, sounds good to me.

Perhaps because of last night’s storm, not a single wandering traveler appeared on my Detection skill. After about an hour of clearing the path for Rubia along the mountain trail, we saw it.

There it is.

The Erast castle gates, visible for the second time. From afar, it was a small city, easily taken in at a glance. Two guards sat lazily in their chairs with gloomy expressions, barely paying attention. The gates weren’t even properly closed.

What a mess.

The current lord had no idea those two men had been killed.

Instead of killing everyone...

I looked at Rubia, walking with tense lips and a slightly flushed face. I would kill only those who showed hostility toward her. The rest could figure it out on their own.