Chapter 135: Undeath and taxes

Chapter 135: Undeath and taxes

The nobles were very noisy as they started to disperse and leave, the story of this unusual last audience would no doubt be spread far and wide through the Empire in a matter of days.

After most of the nobles left, coming down from his dais, he walked up to Sofia, he was back to the more casual tone he had in private. Saintess, Hero, you may discuss further details with Karin. Welcome to our Red Winds Empire. You will like it here, I am sure.

He acts like I already accepted. And he included Pareth in the lot. I suppose he will want to grant him citizenship too? I wonder how he might react to the book.The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

Ah, I should negotiate something for Alith too, in case she wants it.

I hope so, as well.

Worry not, we are, in the end, a militaristic Empire. The law is lenient toward the strong. I will let you get back to Karin, if I may offer some unsolicited advice, ask about the barony of Sivius. Have fun, Saintess. He raised a hand as if to say goodbye and strolled out of the throne room by a side door, leaving Sofia and her skeletons alone in the chamber.

Well, the knights are still here.

Sofia clapped her hands twice and the Paladin skeletons blew up in a cloud of mist. Of all the things I expected to happen when I came back here.

This wasnt one of them.

But it does make a lot of sense. They are at war with Skyreach and the Church, and I have been hunting the Church members too.

He asked some annoying questions but he still went easy on me. What helped more I wonder? My relations with the Vampires? Vouching from the drinking group? My power?

I cant tell. This guy is too good at controlling his face and body language. Hes dangerous. I can see why he is the emperor and not someone else.

Lets get back to Karin then.

She was surprised at how fast the throne room had gone from crowded under the dusk sunlight to empty and almost dark. As if the emperor had timed his exit with the suns.

Actually, Im pretty sure he did. No way this was a coincidence, she thought as she observed her reflection on the polished stone floor. Karin was waiting for her near the door.

Hey hey, looks like it went rather well, didnt it? the goatkin woman hailed with a smile.

The important part of this was the guilds information network. Sofia knew from Kuli that they had people all the way out to the other side of Skyreach. They had a lot of information about a lot of things and people. It would be much faster to get the location of unexplored dungeons from them than searching for them blindly.

She had good hopes that with full access to the Empires knowledge as well as the Vampires, she could both learn more about the corruption in Sovuln and find Chino.

If the girl had survived the attack of the orphanage, Sofia needed to make sure she was safe and healthy. And if not She would rather not keep bearing false hope.

This was almost the whole reason Sofia accepted the entire deal.

Not only that but she was certain that she would need a wide variety of different and very specific locations to train her venerable physique passive skill. That would make the search much more bearable.

There werent more restrictions than that, so Sofia just signed the documents, gave a fingerprint, and got her identity card a few minutes later. Despite not having accepted any kind of employment of anything, her card still said Baroness Sofia. Karin explained that it was purely to have things be more convenient for Sofia, there was no need to oversee any land or anything with this title which was the lowest of the nobility. It would only open more doors and give her some social standing.

Karin also took the opportunity to finally give Sofia the twenty thousand gold the adventurer guild owed her. A butler came afterward to deliver a black suitcase. It contained a dusty skeleton. Karin gave some commentary.

It looks like they got this from the palaces prison. I can think of two or three guys that could have been. The people we sentence to death are left to starve down there if not killed on the spot. How do you summon them? Some kind of ritual or something?

Want to watch? Its very simple. Come out to eat, Bookie.

Karin watched flabbergasted as the book appeared out of nowhere and jumped inside the suitcase, eating the skeleton whole.

That The book you used in IT WAS A HERO THIS WHOLE TIME? You have a Hero book? A BOOK?! Karin yelled, pointing at the book now closed and resting inside the open suitcase.

Youre only [Identify]ing it now? Its a book Hero yes, has a blessing and all, like Pareth.

Wait so youre not the necromancer, its the book who

Of course Im not, Im a Saintess, remember? But also somewhat of a Necromancer. A Saintess Necromancer. A Saintomancer, if you will, Sofia remarked with a smile.

You do know none of what you just said made sense, right?

Dont sweat the details, Karin, nothing about any of my skills make sense. You get used to it.

If you say so Good thing youre with us now. Your skeletons are nasty fighters. Well, the big one at least.