The Necromancer Who Was Despised

If Hagiya can lure me to the Elf side, the Dark Elves will fall into ruin once again.

Therefore, my current choice is quite valid.

However…

“I apologize, but I’m not sure if I can make it in time.”

“…You won’t be able to get along with the Elves, will you?”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m just giving you advice.”

“Thank you, but I’ll handle it myself.”

“…Do you plan on opposing the Union?”

“Me?”

That’s unlikely.

“I don’t oppose the Union. The Elves are the same.”

I’m just too busy to attend the meeting, that’s all.

‘I’ll have to contact the Elder Council…’

“Don’t regret that choice.”

Uskatia looked at Yerie and continued.

“This time, I’ll let it slide, but it’s better if you don’t speak carelessly. Don’t forget that your words are the source of cartoons. If the last remaining weak family disappears, how sad would that be? And…”

The faces of the two Elders and Yerie stiffened at her explicit threat.

She then looked at the three stiffened Dark Elves and raised the corner of her mouth.

“Even if you go, you won’t get the answer you want. It’s just nonsense. Stop your delusions and hold onto the last remaining hope.”

It sounded like a rotten rope, but…

The last words seemed to echo faintly.

It was a phrase that gave off a strange, unsettling feeling.

◈ Development

“I guess I won’t be able to hear a proper response.”

It seemed like the last words had been heard.

Elder Bert seemed to have grasped the situation.

“…There must have been a reason why the Dragonians treated us so well.”

Freté gritted his teeth and muttered.

It was just speculation, but looking at Uskatia’s reaction, it didn’t seem like an impossible story.

However, judging by her attitude…

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to hear a proper response.”

“…That’s right.”

Yerie nodded in response to Bert’s words.

“It’s already too late, so it’s pointless to try to find out the truth now. It’ll only lead to unnecessary conflicts. Considering the Union’s situation during wartime, even if it’s true, they won’t tell us.”

There was even a possibility of denial.

It’s hard to get recognition, no matter how you meet.

In a situation where war is ongoing, it’s impossible to condemn the elves.

The Dark Elves’ power is too weak to demand compensation.

From the Dragoinian’s point of view, even if the elves made a mistake, considering their strength, they couldn’t abandon them.

“I’ve already said I’ve paid the price.”

I said I’d attacked recklessly, but I ignored the victim, the Dark Elves, and negotiated with the Dragoinians instead.

Of course, if the elves were to withdraw from the alliance, it would be a difficult situation, but it wouldn’t come to that extreme.

The alliance and the elves need each other.

Therefore, it’s clear that the Dark Elves are the only ones suffering losses.

“If we’re going to settle the score, we’ll need to build up our strength for at least a few decades.”

Even that… the possibility of it being meaningless is high.

The elves won’t just be idle, and in reality, too much time has already passed.

Harboring past grudges has its limits.

Yeriyah’s lips curled in distaste, as if she was fed up.

The two elders also couldn’t hide their bitter emotions.

It’s a situation that arose from a lack of power.

Today, the atmosphere was bad, so we decided to take a day off.

Still, knowing that the situation had escalated to the point where the chief administrator and the elders had to take a neutral stance was a relatively good outcome.

“The problem is how the elves will react.”

I nodded in agreement with Kayla’s words.

“It’s like they’re hurt, but they have something they want, so they won’t do anything rash.”

In reality, the Dark Elves’ influence had a significant impact on the conversation.

Especially Yeriyah’s words seemed to have brought out the worst in Uscatia’s nature.

“It’s like they’re threatening us, but they’ll regret it later.”

The current situation isn’t entirely favorable to the elves.

We can forcibly cover up past incidents, and I can meet with the chief administrator, but it’s a fact that we need trade routes at the alliance level.

Now that I know they have something they want from me, if our relationship deteriorates, it won’t be good for them either.

Moreover…

“Even just looking at our current military strength, it’s not something to be underestimated.”

Our value lies not only in our trade routes but also in our own substantial strength.

Although we’re relatively weak compared to the empire, with five or so people, the story changes.

“Does Tinus not notice?”

There’s a possibility that he knows, given that there’s a traitor among the wizards.

With Kayla, the master, here, it’s not a level where we can be ignored as a solo force.

“If we think about the undead in the Purgatory, it’s clear we don’t need to treat them as enemies.”

The overall strength of the elves is unknown.

They’re probably stronger than us. They occupy a significant position in the alliance, after all.

But that doesn’t mean we can be ignored.

Especially when considering our relationship with the 6 Kingdom Alliance.

“But their eyes were sincere.”

That’s true.

“They need to keep a reasonable distance, it seems.”

“That’s right.”

If they really want a lot of energy sources, then my existence would be like a perpetual water supply to them.

‘Following the Dark Mages and the Elves…’

Even the Demon King had targeted me.

It’s a talent that can’t help but be envied by many, and if I’m not careful, I might end up worse off than the Dark Elves.

Especially since the Elves seem to be watching the situation, and the Demon King and Dark Mages don’t need to be mentioned.

“If we go back, we’ll have to deal with the followers first.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“There will be tools for communication, so we can find them based on that, right?”

“It’s possible to find them that way, but it’s still hard to punish them.”

At best, it’ll just be a slap on the wrist. The Elves are watching our backs, and besides, we reported this incident to the Union from the start.

After all, they’re part of the Union.

“It’s not like we can kill them just for ignoring us and contacting them directly, so in the end, we’re just losing our own manpower.”

It’s unpleasant, but if we get emotional about it, we’ll only end up hurting ourselves.

It’s better not to get too close. Anyway, most of the information is already out there.

“Still, we can at least detain them. We need to make sure they can’t cause any more trouble.”

“Hmm, that’s about right.”

“If we go back, we’ll take care of it right away.”

“It’s okay to use the Dark Elves as a medium.”

Since I’ve been in contact with the Elves through the Dark Elves, I’ll take the initiative.

Kailya also nodded in agreement, as if she thought so too.

There was one unexpected thing, though.

‘They’re not trying to use Tinuas.’

Whether they thought the Dragonians were more reliable than the Dark Elves or thought it wasn’t worth mentioning, Yeriya didn’t bring up the topic with Tinuas himself.

Even if the elders were around, they could sense it with just a glance, but it seemed like they thought this was clearly their own business.

That’s why, when the day changed, Yeriya came to apologize to me separately.

“Even if we help the Dark Elves, you didn’t have a reason to be on bad terms with the Elves… I’m ashamed.”

“No, it’s okay. If they really want infinite magic, we need to be careful. Instead, I’m grateful that we can easily understand their goals.”

And how dangerous they are.

“Thank you for understanding.”

If our powers are similar, we can use this to gain a lot, but if we’re weak, we might get exploited.

So, for now, I didn’t plan on doing something crazy like going to the Elves’ forest.

Tinuas’ true identity would be kept secret for a while, even if he went to the Dragonians.

I couldn’t predict how the Dragonians would think of Tinuas, who claimed to be a Dragon’s descendant, and he personally recognized the Dragon’s descendant as a separate entity.

It wasn’t hard to understand Tinuas’ choice, considering they were trying to make the Dragon’s descendants unable to claim their heritage and prioritize the Union’s interests.

That guy’s 8-class story was noisy again, though.

Until the day I left, Uskatia didn’t come to see me.

However, I sent someone to apologize for yesterday’s rudeness and conveyed the message that I wanted to meet again.

It seemed to have dawned on me that having a normal conversation with Yeriya and the two elders present was impossible.

I didn’t respond separately.

The other side must have had expectations, but I had no reason to comply.

We immediately headed to the scene and caught the informant who had leaked the information.

The two elders, who had received my request, were quite proactive, and it turned out that one of them was a commander in charge of controlling the undead.

“Kunos… you…”.

Bert’s expression was pitiful, as if he had trusted the undead.

The wolf-like undead, called Kunos, hung its head in shame and was arrested without resistance.

I explained the situation to Mutre, who looked puzzled, and he nodded as if he understood.

“It’s less obstructive, so we can complete the path soon. We’ll need regular maintenance, but we’ve used the best materials to make it sturdy, so it won’t cause frequent problems.”

Hearing Mutre’s words, I thought it would be better to build the fourth fortress first.

It would be better to build the fifth fortress after uniting with other fortresses and then start working on the lake construction right away.

‘I’ll make the waterway… with Mutre’s help, using the undead.’

It won’t be easy, given the length. However, since we’ve already surveyed the terrain, we can somehow make the waterway.

We caught the informant and immediately built the fourth fortress, followed by the special fifth fortress, which was completed quickly.

“It was close.”

I muttered, looking down at the skeleton kneeling before me.

“Is this the Great Lord?”

Artina asked, puzzled by its pitiful appearance.

“Yes.”

“It looks much weaker compared to the other four. It doesn’t seem that strong either.”

“It has a different function instead.”

It’s true that its combat power is lacking.

That’s why we had to fill it with more elite undead. We had to consume all the corpses we had accumulated so far.

Honestly, it was close.

“This undead can communicate with other fortresses in real-time.”

“Hmm?”

“It means real-time communication is possible.”

From the beginning, I had planned it this way.

I would center the Great Lord and connect the fortresses.

I had almost given up all functions for the sake of communication alone.

Even if it’s difficult for other lords to communicate with each other, having the Great Lord in between would enable indirect communication.

“The fortresses need to respond organically to situations.”

They can recognize crisis situations and provide support.

“They can also send news to me.”

Accurate information is difficult to obtain, but at least they can convey that the situation is not good. It’s just hard to do so frequently.

In fact, this alone is sufficient.

It’s a limited implementation of the interspecies alliance or what we had.

Naturally, we received the help of the Dark Elves.

Especially, the most crucial part was Yeriya’s help.

“Except for the commander, there’s no other function, right?”

“That’s right.”