Disciple of Immortal

I was currently strolling around with Lunaire in 《Cocytus》.

「Uhm, the place you want to show me is…?」

「…………」

Lunaire kept her silence, just shutting her eyes a little.

「… we’re about to arrive.」

Lunaire said to me, completely ignoring my previous remark.

For some reason, that was all she told me. I’m not that confident in guessing what she was thinking about right now.

She was a surprisingly expressive person despite her expressionless face.

It had been close to one month and a half ever since I came to this place. All I managed to do was read the subtle changes in her face.

Despite the constant attack from the demons around us, Lunaire blocked them from approaching us with her barrier magic. She then finished them off with her prided space-time magic.

She dealt with all of those demons without even looking at them, just like a walk in the park.

Although I could fight back against the demons around this area, I was still far from reaching her level.

「Master… about that matter…」

「I’m not your master any more.」

…. This felt awkward. I mean, it felt like Lunaire was deliberately trying to put a stop to our conversation.

Her blunt attitude eventually stopped me from asking anything.

We arrived in a place where there were huge white pillars that lined up from both sides.

Some of these pillars look like some sort of unknown demons.

Finally, when I was about to ask Lunaire whether we’ve arrived at our destination, we reached a giant stairway that headed below.

Lunaire stopped in her tracks.

「Is this….. The Place?」

Lunaire took out a blue cloth and gave it to me.

A magic bag.

It could easily carry items more than dozens of times of its size.

But, I’ve received one from Lunaire before, that’s why it felt strange for the current me who had mastered 《Dimension Pocket》.

I tried to guess why she gave me another magic bag now , but I really couldn’t think of the reason.

Lunaire threw the magic bag towards me who was still staring blankly at her.

I snapped back and caught the magic bag in a hurry.

「I’ve packed grimoires, spare weapons, and miracle drugs in that bag for you. And please be careful to not accidentally release the devils inside the《Distorted World of the Cursed Mirror》 when your training inside of it.」

「T-That’s…」

「At first, my plan was to send you back by escorting you until you were above the ground. But then I realized that it’s faster to send you back via a teleportation circle on this floor, the deepest floor of Cocytus. Currently, you should be strong enough to defeat the last guardian.」

「W-Wait a minute!」

I interrupted Lunaire’s speech.

「Are we going to…. Part in this place!?」

「Yes. Noble might have tried to stop you from leaving since he has come to like you so much. I might’ve permitted you to stay in this place forever too.」

「Y-Yeah, you’re right….」

… Yeah, I also considered the possibilities on the way to this place.

But, I’ve not prepared my heart for this separation yet.

「Well then, take care. We will not meet again later.」

Lunaire turned around and said those words to me with a bone-chilling tone.

「P-Please wait a minute!」

Lunaire stopped in her place and then turned around to face me.

Though I asked her to stop, the next moment, I was completely at a loss for words.

Since I was originally staying in her house out of her kindness, there was really no need for me to stay in this place now that I’ve accomplished my goal.

「M-Master…. Do you really have no interest in the world outside of this place? I mean, always locking yourself up inside of《Cocytus》 is… just too lonely, right?」

「… I’ve told you before that I hate humans. Even the matter of me helping you is just a way for me to kill time, I will be troubled if you stay in this place any longer….」

「L-Lie, I-I know that you’re lying!」

When I said so, Lunaire’s eyes opened wide, clearly surprised by my sudden cry.

Lunaire kept her silence for a while but then, she heaved a deep and long sigh.

「…. Want to hear a really old story? It might take some time though.」

I nodded at her.

Lunaire’s face that stiffened ever since I finished my training softened a little bit.

A while later, Lunaire told me about her story prior to becoming a lich.

「Lets see… I was born around a thousand years ago….」

―― Lunaire was born around a thousand years ago in a famous wizard family.

With her inborn talent and gifted education from her father since her early childhood, she became the greatest wizard of the successive generation of her family. All at the tender age of ten.

It was also around that age that Lunaire’s father and master passed away.

Despite the sadness of losing her father, Lunaire had to see her sick mother who became more emaciated as time passed. All the while she researched necromancy outside of the public eyes.

Feeling the limit of her personal research, she illegally entered the domain of forbidden magic. She changed her plans and made her way towards the apex of the magician while shutting down other magicians with her power. She finally mastered the way to resurrect the dead with necromancy at the age of fourteen.

But then, upon reaching the age of fourteen, she was separated from everything she had learned up until then.

She learned that resurrecting the dead was a taboo, and was told just what kind of disaster would befall her if she resurrected someone as an undead with necromancy.

Along with her mother’s health improvement, she eventually canceled her plans to use necromancy.

A problem had occurred three years later, the time when Lunaire turned seventeen.

A being called the Demon King appeared in her country.

”Demon King” was a name that referred to a monster who became extremely powerful after it had experienced a rapid self-evolution. In some cases, they could even empower their subordinates.

They appeared out of nowhere without any kind of warning signs, and if they were left alone, they would build their own monster army and slaughter human inhabitants. Leaving nothing in their wake.

Going back in history, quite a number of prosperous countries were destroyed by them in just a few years. Strangely enough, the world had yet to be conquered by a demon king up until now.

Though the person who met a demon king before said that the demon king was 『Choosen By The World』, there was no way to know whether it was true or not.

Lunaire was chosen to become a part of the soldier’s subjugation party due to her mastery of magic. She also went towards the battlefield to subjugate the demon king.

Although its status was said to be within the upper part of a mid-rank demon king, they barely won against it.

Their original plan was to send twenty of their hand-picked elites into the Demon King’s castle in the midst of battle and assassinate it. However, half of the assassination squad was killed by the Demon King and the rest were heavily injured and escaped from the Demon King’s slaughter.

Lunaire didn’t miss that opening, she managed to kill the Demon King while locked in a double simultaneous attack. She killed the Demon King and the Demon King’s counterattack killed her.

The necromancy that she learned since the age of ten was finally put into practice at that moment.

Since the demon king was an intelligent being, it knew about human society very well.

It seemed that even the Demon King itself would never have expected that a noble daughter from a famous magician family was, in fact, a master of the highest rank necromancy.

Lunaire used herself as the bait to guide her opponent. After she completed the special procedures, she successfully deployed her necromancy magic, and then she extracted the still beating heart of the Demon King.

In fact, Lunaire was on the verge of dying at that time but… even in her last moments, she was worried about what was going to happen to her mother after her death.

She was aware that her mother who miraculously recovered from the sadness of losing her father was mainly due to Lunaire’s existence.

Lunaire was aware that her death would bring even heavier sadness to her mother.

To become an undead with necromancy, Lunaire needed the living heart of a powerful demon.

Fortunately, or maybe, unfortunately, she had the living heart of the demon king in her hand.

Lunaire had also prepared the other ingredients a long time ago in her dimension pocket, she was ready to finish the ritual.

Lunaire was troubled about her mother’s situation while facing her imminent deathand then, her fear of death triumphed.

Most of all, she was running out of time with every passing second.

Lunaire prepared the other necessary ingredients and set it up so her necromancy would be invoked automatically when the moon was rising.

The reason being was she couldn’t turn herself into an undead when she was still alive, and she couldn’t invoke her necromancy by herself if she was dead.

―― Thus, Lunaire cast away her humanity and gained eternal life in return.

「And then… uhm, your mother is….」

When I asked that question, Lunaire shook her head.

「Due to the effect of Hades’s Impurity. Nay, even without that, the magic that violated the boundary of life and death is seen as the greatest taboo by religion. I’ve understood that and yet… I only TRULY understood the reason after I turned myself into an undead.」

Lunaire said so with a deep and heavy voice.

…. But, I can only imagine what has happened to her back then.

I’m sure that Lunaire’s attachment towards life wasn’t for her non-existent friends or for the masses, it was for her mother. However, her grief was caused by her mother who couldn’t accept her as an undead.