Chapter 13 - I Meet a Fellow Undead

Chapter 13 : I Meet a Fellow Undead

===A Certain Undead With Communication Disorder===

「U~hn… I can’t sleep at all」

I groaned in frustation as I rolled around in the middle of the steppe.

I couldn’t even get a wink of sleep, no matter how long I counted sheep.

As expected, the undead didn’t have the bodily function called sleep.

Continuing my travels was better than lying down here without doing anything.

So I rose up and began walking in the middle of the darkness of night.

After who knew how much time had passed since then…

I saw a faint light in the distance.

「A… city.」

I found another city.

From the fact that there was light coming from the other side of the ramparts, I knew that it was a proper city, not a ruin.

… There was still some time left until the night ended.

I should use this opportunity to sneak into the city.

Properly speaking, I should have used the gate, but I didn’t think I could explain my situation to the gatekeeper.

They might even grow suspicious of me and refuse to let me into the city.

The rampart was more than three meters tall.

Even so, I easily jumped over that height with barely any strength.

And I landed safely on the ground.

「… Safe」

There were no footsteps hurrying in my direction when I strained my ears to hear the situation around me.

First, I walked straight ahead from the wall behind me.

Nevertheless, I pondered how many people must live in this city.

Although the amount of time I wandered in the dungeon felt like eternity, I had no long how long had passed since my death.

「What is… that?」

I stopped right in front of the mysterious object that shone in the darkness.

The light from this object was most likely the light that I saw from outside.

I thought it was a bonfire.

However, the object in front of me was a long and thin pole with a lantern-like object on its tip.

The light from this lantern was vastly different from the lanterns lit by fire that I knew of when I was alive.

And yet, its shine was bright enough to illuminate the surroundings.

Moreover, its light was stable, unlike the light from a fire.

「It seems that the lantern part is really useful for adventurers who want to go dungeon diving.」

In general, someone needed a light source when they dove into a dungeon, something such as a torch or light source from fire magic. However, carrying the former was a real pain in the a*ss, while the latter would constantly eat away your mana to maintain it.

Well, it was not like I needed both of them thanks to my undead ability to see in the dark. [TL : He didn’t say “Night Vision”]

I discovered another anomaly, which I couldn’t see from outside the ramparts, when I entered the downtown plaza.

「Is this… A carriage? Seriously… Without harnesses for the horses?」

At a glance, it resembled a carriage since it had wheels and a roof, but I couldn’t imagine a horse capable of pulling this carriage.

It didn’t have the coachman seat either.

When I peeked inside of that “carriage,” I saw something that resembled a ship’s steering wheel in the front.

What was this steering wheel’s function?

「… Humanity has made so many mysterious things.」

Come to think of it, even the metropolis Balkaba had been reduced to ruins.

Maybe more time had passed than I expected.

I finally discovered THAT after searching the buildings around the area.

「… Clothes」

Even though I felt guilty, I still broke the key and entered the store.

The reason for this was naturally to get a new set of clothes. The ones I had been wearing were in tatters, after all.

Undead aside, my current tattered attire was already suspicious enough.

Someone with abysmal communication skills like me wouldn’t be able to easily make a good first impression.

I had to at least prepare a nice set of clothes in order to make them hear me out.

I chose the ones I liked from the display and put them on.

Then, I looked at my reflection in the mirror located in the store.

… Great, this attire was good enough.

Save for my grey-colored hair and red eyes, I appeared as nothing but a normal youth.

But, I still paid close attention to the “feel.”

I guess I should hide the color of my hair and eyes with a hat.

After I was satisfied with my appearance, I apologized to the unknown owner of this clothing store in my mind as I exited the shop.

My actions were the very definition of burglary, but I placed some of the materials from the monsters I killed along the way on top of the counter as my payment.

These materials were probably worth more than the clothing I stole.

「With this set of new clothes, I can walk freely during the day.」

However, I couldn’t check the effectiveness of my disguise since it was the middle of the night.

Well, in the morning, I should try walking downtown and looking inconspicuous.

「… Uhm?」

What was this?

What was this… feeling?

I stopped walking as soon as I felt something was off.

「Is it coming from… that direction?」

I turned around and walked toward the direction where I felt that something was off.

Even though I had no idea what was waiting for me in that direction, I just knew that “something” was there.

It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

What attracted me was the feeling that the “something” over there was related to me.

The only problem was that I had no idea what was waiting for me there.

I kept walking in that direction by following my intuition while erasing my presence and miasma as much as I could.

Finally, I arrived in front of a certain detached house.

There were no signs of life coming from this house.

It seemed this house was uninhabited.

But my instincts told me that there was “something” inside.

I entered the building from a window that was left open.

But I still couldn’t find anything, even after searching the entire house.

「Strange? Is it just my imaginati-… Uhm, there’s “something” in the basement…」

As soon as I sensed the basement, I discovered an unnatural handle upon searching the floor.

What appeared when I pulled up that handle was a staircase that continued down to the basement.

「Is it a ghost…- The h*eck, I’m an undead. Why should I be afraid of a ghost?」

I readied myself for an unexpected situation and descended to the basement.

Upon arriving…

「What in the… world is this?」

Frankly speaking, this was a torture room.

I saw so many dangerous looking weapons or similarly dangerous tools all over the room.

Each one of them was plastered and caked with blood, as if to say that they had just been used to torture someone in this room.

In addition, I could tell from the air in this room—the iron-like stench of new blood—that the deed had been performed recently.

Upon closer inspection, I realized the blood had yet to dry.

And, in the corner of the room was a pile—a pile composed of the corpses of several humans.

This scene would surely make me vomit if I wasn’t an undead.

「Someone found out, huh…」

「!!」

I turned around at once.

Over there, I saw a handsome man in his thirties with a sword strapped to his waist.

His long hair was tied behind his back and his body was tall and lean, yet it was obviously a body that had been tempered by hard training.

Even though it seemed like he was full of openings, I could tell that it wasn’t the case. He had a sharp aura that pricked my skin.

However, I couldn’t feel a sign of vitality from this man.

Upon a closer inspection, he didn’t even breath or blink his eyes.

「No way, are you an… undead?」

My intuition told me so.

And just like that, I finally understood the sensation I felt a while ago.

I see now, it seemed the “something” that made me visit this place was none other than the undead in front of me.

Although I had no idea about the other party, it seemed I had an ability to track my fellow undead.

「… What? So you’re an undead… too? Sure enough, I don’t feel any vital signs from you, but…」

It seemed the other party had that ability too.

Nevertheless, I was more surprised seeing there was another undead who could speak apart from me.

I felt a sense of affinity with my kins-

… Wait a minute.

I frantically shook my head, dismissing that feeling from my head.

This guy was obviously different from me.

The reason was none other than this room itself.

He was probably the culprit behind those corpses.

Screw that—not just “probably.” His other hand was dragging a young woman by her feet.

I knew that young woman was barely alive from the slight undulation of her chest.

「… What are you going to do to that person?」

「Torture her as much as I can, then kill her.」

His reply was heartless and clear. He didn’t even try to hide his intentions from me.

「For what reason?」

「Because it’s my master’s orders… As if there’s another reason for that.」

「Master?」

He spoke like a deranged zealot, fanatically praising his god.

「He’s our king… Jean Diego-sama. This room and those corpses are my offering… for that person.」

… It seemed I met an undead that was clearly in contrast with a peace loving undead like me.