CH 74

Before I had time to ponder on such doubts, Parker’s head spun around while his body stayed still and his eyes looked at me.

“Oh? Are you perhaps thinking that I was off playing somewhere?”

Can this guy read my mind?

“Hahaha, despite appearances, I am a faithful Third Division Aide of the Demon Lord’s Army! I’ve worn these old bones in service to the Demon Lord’s Army! Though my bones are still intact!”

Good, here’s my chance.

“We stopped using Aide as titles. Currently, you are just Parker.”

“Eh?”

It was just for a moment, but I succeeded in shutting him up.

I clapped my hands together to disperse the crowd of werewolves.

“All of you, return to your stations! I’ll take care of this guy!”

At my words, the werewolves seemed to return to themselves.

They shuffled back to their stations, shaking their heads.

Oh well, allowing Parker to talk was a good way to get nowhere…

I grabbed him by the collar just as he was about to bring up a new topic, and dragged him to my office.

“Upon receiving the order from Master, I went to the southern reaches of Beruza. Did you know that there are merfolk in those seas?”

Parker began to explain in my office as he helped himself to some of my green tea.

“Did it go well then?”

“No, not at all.”

Parker laughed loudly.

“Those people are shockingly pacifistic. Even when I told them that they did not need to fight, they rejected me saying ‘we can’t go out on land.'”

Well, that is obvious. They were merfolk.

“I said, we only need half of you.”

“Half, huh.”

“Yes, just the top half.”

“…Did you really say that?”

To this, Parker’s bones started to rattle as he began to laugh merrily.”I was almost drowned.”

“Well, you’re just bones anyway.”

Master. I don’t think this one was meant for negotiations after all.

Parker continued as he held the cup of steaming green tea in front of him.

“Well, I think I’ll leave this issue of the merfolk to you. You’ve intelligently secured your foothold here, and you mean to take Beruza in the near future, right?”

“I am thinking of paying them a little visit before the military invasion.”

There was no harm in finding out if they could be persuaded.

“However, if you’re just going to push the burden of negotiating with the merfolk onto me, then I wonder what exact use you have been all this time?”

“My ears hurt. Wait, where are my ears?”

Stop it with these acts. And I’ve heard that joke dozens of times already.

“Additionally, this joke can be taken in directions that include ‘sense of pain’, which do you think is better?”

“Who cares, go away.”

I started to ignore Parker who was in front of me and began to think of what to do now, but Parker wanted to continue talking.

“By the way, I heard that you avenged the Demon Lord, by defeating the Hero who killed him?”

“That is not correct. The Demon Lord and the Hero were at a standoff, I just dealt a finishing blow.”

“Hmmm…”

Ah, he was about to say something again.

If he says something imprudent about the Demon Lord’s death, I will seriously beat him. Fellow disciple or not.

Instead, Parker took off his hat, held it to his breast and bowed in front of me.

“Thank you, Vaito. You are the pride of Gomoviroa’s disciples.”

“Eh?”

“I too was greatly fond of the Demon Lord. I felt comforted when I was around him. He wasn’t just strong, he was a rare type of leader.”

It felt like it had been ages since I last heard him speak in earnest.

Parker scratched his skull as if troubled and began to mumble.

“…Oh, dear. I cannot cry any longer.”

“Parker…”

My fellow disciple, Parker crumpled his own hat in a tight grip and silently looked at the floor.

After a long moment of silence, he raised his head.

“I am so glad that you are my younger brother.”

Apparently, that was the best joke he could muster at the moment.

I stood up and placed a hand on his thin shoulder.

“Younger fellow disciple, I’ll allow that.”

After mourning a little, Parker put his hat on once again.

“Ah, for I, the mood-maker of the Demon Lord Army’s, to be seen like this, the whole army will become gloomy. It is the job of the clown to dance and make people happy, even while he sheds tears.”

“With you, it’s just endlessly annoying. Also, I thought that you couldn’t cry?”

“Hahaha, that is fine.”

What’s fine?

As Parker stood up, he completely returned to his usual way of speaking.

“If you’re going to Beruza, I will accompany you. Even someone such as I could help you as a guide for the road.”

“No. You draw too much attention.”

“Ahh, don’t worry about my clothes. I’ve prepared something that is quite chic and proper.”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s your face, your face!”

As if I could take this skeleton man with me to negotiate with the humans.

As soon as I was about to say this, the skull face disappeared. And in its stead, was an incredibly handsome man.

It took me about two seconds to realize that the man was Parker.

The soft and beautiful youth had an air of melancholy but talked up a storm in Parker’s flippant voice.

“How is it? I studied a little of the illusory arts. I can’t change the sensations or temperature, but I can hide my appearance like this now.”

“Why that face?”

“What, this is my original face, you know? It’s been a long time since I died, so I should really be an old man. But it’s harder to make an older face.”

Was he really that handsome in life?

With that personality?

“What do you think? I don’t think that there were any students so skilled with illusions as me, were there? Should I quit being a necromancer and become an illusionist?”

Ah, I remembered now. He doesn’t know about Lash.

“We have a professional illusionist among our new students. An amazing person who can recreate the walls of this castle, you can even feel it.”

“Eh…what the, are you for real?”

He was shocked, really shocked.

He could create all his facial expressions then. That was a surprising level of detail for him.

Parker folded his arms and once again returned his face into a skull.

“Well, um… Anyway, with this face, I can accompany you, surely?”

I always find it difficult to deny this fellow disciple, whenever he asks something of me.

“I suppose you have nothing better to do. Very well, you can come.”

“Hahaha, that’s the younger brother I know.”

“Give it a rest! Listen, you better not say anything that you shouldn’t! If you hinder the negotiations in any way, I’ll throw you to the fish!”

“I understand. Believe in your older brother.”

“Shut up.”

While he was usually a flippant, thoughtless person, I actually had a number of debts owed to Parker. And as an elder disciple of the great philosopher Gomoviroa, his skills with necromancy were genuine.

And he had a knack for being dependable when it really mattered.

But that was also why he got on my nerves so much.

Bastard brother.