7 Question #6:




 Power fills you. I wondered how long it had been since I had been born anew.
 The Lord's gaze towards me had become more and more suspicious as the days went by.

"...... still no change,...... hmmm,...... I thought I used a lot--

 Lab. After a day's routine of hunting, Lord lets out a low growl and looks at my face as I pretend to be a doll.

 There is such a thing as average. According to the books I've read, carrion people generally mutate from one being to the next in six months to a year, although there doesn't seem to be that much research into this, as necromancers are forbidden magic.

 Of course, this is subject to individual differences.
 If a person is locked in a locked room where death cannot be collected, no matter how long it takes, the rank mutation will not occur.
 However, in this case, I was cared for by the Lord every day and continued to collect death. It's hard to imagine that it would take longer than average.

 Probably less than a year has passed since the outbreak. It has not been that long since I started to feel hungry.
 But it seems to have been long enough to feel discomfort.

 Lord touches my arm with his bony fingertips. He looks into my pupils and chants something. I don't know what it is, but it's probably some kind of necromancy.
 His body is filled with power. My limbs become hot, and I feel an intense sensation as if they are expanding. But I kept my mouth shut.

It's not a lack of magic power, is it ......? Not enough thoughts?

 He frowns and looks up at me with a vexed expression.
 Lord was an excellent sorcerer. It was obvious from the fact that he built his mansion deep in the woods where vicious monsters roamed, and it was also obvious from the amount of books he had in his library and the countless corpses he could collect.

 However, Lord's deep knowledge of necromancers has made him too much of a common sense man.
 A carrion man is a low-grade undead. They are easy to make, easy to use as long as you have a corpse, but they are extremely vulnerable, meat puppets that only obey orders. There is no will or intent in them, and they cannot move a finger without the Lord's command.

 The existence of my predecessor is another reason why the Lord is obsessed with common sense.

 Perhaps my predecessor was a common carnivore. As a carnivore, he could only obediently listen to the Lord's orders, and the change in his rank was obvious.
 They suddenly gained intelligence. According to the book, there are two types of undead that mutate from carrion to werewolf.

 Either they understand the situation and obey, or they understand the situation and violently resist.
 My reaction, on the other hand, is nothing. The Lord doesn't understand my situation because he has a deep knowledge of undead mutation. He doesn't know how to verify that I, a brilliant carnivore who has survived, have actually mutated.
 He knows that I am gathering negative energy and that my power is increasing, but his suspicion is still in the realm of doubt.

 Originally, the appearance of a carrion person remains the same before and after the mutation.
 The inside is certainly different, but he seems to have forgotten the most effective way to distinguish between the two.

 If I were him, I would have given him a no-brainer.

"Are you mutated? Answer me honestly.

 I obeyed the Lord's orders absolutely, and if he had asked me such a question, I would have had no choice but to give in, but the Lord, knowing full well the nature of a carnivore - the lack of intelligence - did not ask me that question.
 To him, I am an object that does not move in unexpected ways.

 The Lord flattened himself, frowned, and shouted in a voice of disapproval.

Lu, get me a knife.


§


 Light footsteps stopped in front of the laboratory, and after a moment of hesitant silence, the door swung open with a squeak.

 Except for Lord, there is another living person in this house.
 His alertness is much lower than Lord's, but I've been observing him.

 It was a dirty looking woman who entered with a look of fear on her face.
 A young woman with dark hair. She was in her mid-twenties. She was short in stature and so thin that she looked as if she was about to fall. Her arms and legs were thin and bony.
 The most striking feature is the long, thin black sash around her neck, a sign of slavery.

 His eyes are as stagnant as the undead's, his lips are dry and cracked, and he looks like a carnivore if not worse.

 I don't know his real name. But the woman Lord calls "Lou" is a slave owned by Lord Horos.

 The carrion man may be powerful and can kill demons, but he is not suited for delicate work. Therefore, it is the woman's job to help him with his research and take care of him.
 She cleaned the house, cooked the meals, and put away the books. Unlike the Lord, she did not seem to have eyes that could see in the dark, but when she walked down the corridor, she had a light that made it very easy to see her, but on the other hand, unlike the Lord, she walked around randomly in the corridors and rooms, so I accidentally ran into her several times while exploring.

 I would look back at him with impunity. If Luu were to report to Lord that he had encountered me in the basement while he was at work, there would be trouble. But at the same time, he wouldn't.
 But at the same time, he wouldn't report it. The sash around the slave's neck is a magical tool that allows the slave to enforce the master's orders. It has the power to control their thoughts to a certain degree, to twist their will, and to make them obey orders.

 Lou was, if anything, even more afraid of the Lord than I was. And there's fear in the way she looks at me.
 She has a will, but no will. She only does what Lord tells her to do.

The knife.

 At Lord's words, Luu panicked, grabbed a knife from his pocket, and came to Lord's side. He took the knife, and with a casual movement, struck Luu on the head.

"You're late, you piece of trash.

 Despite his spiteful tone, there was no anger in his eyes. Perhaps he was just angry. If not, then Lord Luu is not treating his slave any better or worse than a slave.



 Lou collapses. The Lord scrapes the bones of his hand and thrusts his knife into my right arm.

 A dull pain rushes up my arm, as if it were a hundred times thinner than it really is. It's another sign that my rank mutation is progressing.
 The undead are a curse. From being completely 'just a moving corpse', the accumulation of negative energy is making me closer to a more horrible and cursed existence. There are more than just simple benefits to be gained.

 It's worse than when I was a carnivore, when I had no sense of pain, but it's nothing compared to the pain I felt in life.

 Almost no blood came out of the wound. Perhaps the blood hadn't circulated yet. According to the book, the more 'deepened' undead bleed just like humans.
 As if to make sure, the Lord gouged at the wound.

 He survives the ongoing pain without changing his color. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts-- it doesn't hurt. It doesn't ...... hurt.

 The Lord slowly releases the knife. Keeping his eyes on me, he orders Lou to throw up on the floor.

"...... only a carnivore,...... hey, report anything on his wounds.

"Oh, ......--

"Answer me.

Oh, .......

 The sound of violence fills the air. A sorcerer is said to strengthen his body with magic.
 Lord's body appeared to be nothing but skin and bones, but he seemed to have some strength. He kicked me in the tail, and Luu flew like a ball.

 I just watched the scene without any particular emotion.

 The knife gouged out my wound and it stung.

 Whenever I was injured in the forest, the Lord healed me with magic. Since carrion doesn't regenerate, it's only natural if you want to use it for a long time.
 Progress of the wound. One of the main differences between a freshman and a ghoul is the ability to regenerate. That's what the order "if something happens to the wound" refers to.
 It seems that Lord is trying to determine my mutation by factors other than the occurrence of self-consciousness.

 He must have thought that it was strange that I had killed so many people without mutation. I knew it would come eventually.
 But ...... is naive. There's no point in telling me in front of me how you're going to find out.

 As usual, after I was returned to the morgue, I started to act.

 I rolled up my arms and checked my scars. The wraith's regenerative ability was higher than that of a human, and the wound had already begun to regenerate. It was not as instantaneous as healing magic, but a wound like this would heal in a day.

 It seems that the regeneration ability is also enhanced when you change into a higher level undead. The fact that he was still in the ghoul stage was a boon. He raised his left hand and slowly transformed the tip of his claw into a blade. The tip of the claw was no less than the knife Lord had used to gouge my arm.

 He inserts the claw to emphasize his arm and the wound that remains there.
 The pain spread slowly around the wound and shook my heart.
 It is not that the pain is stronger than the previous knife.
 But it was the first time I had ever hurt myself ....... I hadn't been able to move properly since I can remember, and I thought it would be impossible for me to hurt myself, even if the heavens and earth were turned upside down.

 My eyes and body were not crying, but my heart was. I feel a hot pain in the back of my head, but I bite it down. This is-- this is necessary.

 I kill those who tie me down. Holos Kamen, who holds sway over me, must be killed sooner or later. He's a bastard, and he'll think I'm some kind of slave.
 Now is the time to lie low. I'll do whatever it takes to give myself a chance.

 Lord is strong. And he's got absolute control over me. I'm no match for him now, but that doesn't mean there haven't been undead who've successfully defied the lord.
 There were some books in the library that mentioned the rebellion of the undead as a warning.

 Right now, the Lord has placed minimal restrictions on me. If this continues, and I become an even more powerful undead, I have a chance in hell of winning.

 He's the Absolute, but he's not the Almighty.

 He digs into the flesh with his claws, emphasizing his determination. The scar is slightly different than when he gouged it out with the knife, but you won't notice the difference.
 When he was sure that the wound had widened, he pulled the nail out of the wound and took it into his mouth. With a flick of his tongue, he licked up the pieces of flesh and blood. Even though my taste buds can now taste the heart of a hexenbiest, I can't feel anything in my own flesh and blood.

 But it would be troublesome if they noticed that my fingers were dirty. As I'm licking, I suddenly hear a noise.
 I look ahead. I had no idea when it came in.

 There's Luu looking at me with wide eyes. She had blue bruises around her eyes and her lips were red and swollen. He had dark circles under his eyes, and at first glance he looked like a carnivore, but his gaze was definitely fixed on my finger in his mouth.

 Our gazes met. Before I could say anything else, Luu was out like a rabbit.
 I failed. She saw me. She was a slave, but even a slave would have seen that my behavior was unnatural.



 I'm gonna put my foot out and stop just in time. There's no way you can catch up - the road will definitely notice you. What are you going to do, catch up with him? Persuade him? You think you can convince him?

 I'm undead. An undead creation of the sorcerer Holos Kamen. I cannot be trusted. If I were her, you wouldn't trust me.

 Then don't go after her. The worst thing would be if the lord saw me chasing her. Because Lord didn't order me to do that.

 I catch my breath. There wasn't a drop of blood on my fingertips anymore.