Necro turned back towards the guy in a hurry, Ace hopped by her side.
"How was it? Did you get the stuff?"
"Kinda... I accidentally killed him now..."
"That's... Oof!" Ace looked down at the body of the bandit leader. There was a small charred hole in the middle of his forehead... There was some liquid seeping out from it too, wetting the ground. It somehow seemed like vapor was coming out of it too... 'Poor thing...' She thought, imagining what Necro had done.
"It was my fault wasn't it? Sorry..."
"Yeah... Don't worry though. I think I got most of it..." Necro was a little bummed by her mistake, but it didn't mean much anyways.
"Hey! Hope we're not too late to the conversation. What did you get?" Hal reached them, with Mary and Bid by his side. Bid wrinkled his nose, feeling the smell of burnt flesh stronger than in the forest for some reason. Mary, on the other side, had a clear view of the corpse, and of the brains slowly seeping out from the hole.
"Ble~!" She put a hand on her face, swallowing back the urge to throw up. Thankfully, she managed to put the urge down while avoiding to stare at the dead bandit leader any longer. It wouldn't have been a good experience considering she's wearing a helmet.
"Mary!? You okay?!" Hal turned around to ask, seeing Mary holding their knees with both arms while swaying a bit.
"Yeah... Sure... I just saw something I wish I hadn't."
"Huh? Ah..." Hal turned around and stared at the corpse for the first time... 'Yeah... That's not pretty.' He thought, before looking back to Necro, still not believing she had done that. "So, what did we get?"
"Hm... Sorry, I killed him halfway through the questioning cus I got surprised... But, I still got some stuff... First, they were not Bandits... It seems a country sent them here to worsen the public safety and increase the discontent with the Voivode... They were a detachment from such country's army."
"Hm... Do we know where from?" Bid asked with a stern expression.
"No... That's the part we were at when you scared me and... You know."
"That's... Less than ideal..."
"Yeah..."
"What about the money though?" Mary asked, recovering her usual self.
"Huh?" Necro tilted her head.
"The what?" Same with Ace.
"You know... The money, their money, they had nothing on them, where's their stuff?"
"Ah..."
"Don't tell me..."
"No, no. I mean, I didn't ask him specifically for that but..."
"But!?" Mary got a little too energetic for a second, clearing her throat. "Ahem-. Sorry, please continue."
"Oh yeah, Like I said, I didn't ask about their stuff, but there must be a hideout nearby... The stuff will probably be there. There should also only be two people guarding it."
"Let's go, people!" Bid sprung into action, running towards the rest of the bodies, followed by Hal.
"Huh?" Necro didn't really understand what was happening.
"We gotta gather the stuff fast! We need to get there before the two notice something happened!" Hal turned around, yelling the explanation to the girls. Mary and Ace quickly followed him and began picking stuff from the bodies and cutting their fingers, while Necro just stared blankly without really knowing what to do.
'Guess I should get the stuff from this guy then...' She knelt down, rummaging through his clothing in search for something usable. He had a small coin-pouch and nothing more. Necro opened it, there were quite a few coins and a small golden necklace, it looked like one made for children. She thought for a second and realized the origin of it could be traced back to this man's country. In a hurry to tell the others, she grabbed the man's sword and cut his finger off, walking hurriedly to meet the others.
"Hah... In the end they had almost nothing..." Hal let out a sigh of frustration. The battle had been easier than he had originally expected, but still... there were very few items worth even carrying.
"Necro, can you store this stuff in that ring of yours?" Bid asked. If she could, it'd be much easier to bring all that mattered to the town.
"I mean... I think I can. But my space will become limited afterwards."
"Thanks then... We should still arrive there today. I think there shouldn't be any problem with it. We can pay you a little over your share since you're bringing the stuff."
"Ah, Thanks."
"Now, all that is left is to deal with the bodies..."
"Do we have to?" Necro was surprised they were supposed to deal with those.
"Yeah, this is a major road... and if we leave them behind like this they will start to rot and attract monsters. Worst case scenario they may even turn into undead."
'Ah... There was that... Makes sense' Necro thought. But taking care of them now would delay them, contradicting Bid's previous point.
"But don't we have to get to their hideout as soon as possible?"
"Yeah, I was expecting for you and Ace to somehow deal with them."
"Impossible!" Ace began. "I've already spent almost all my mana... And so did Necro, I think. We still have to take over their hideout!"
"Calm down! We can just pile them up and leave it for later." Hal tried calming Ace.
"I can also use my magic so that they don't turn into undead." Mary gave her support to his words.
"Oh right, that's an option." Bid acknowledged their ideas and moved to start pulling the bodies into the forest, while Necro stored everything into her ring. Everything but the money. She wasn't sure whether that was because they didn't trust her enough or just because it was only a small pouch. Regardless, Bid stored it in his own pack.
'I hope she doesn't use that shitty magic from the church... I really wanna get the skeletons...'
Did Necro also tend to focus on tasks to the point where she forgot about her surroundings, and was easily scared while in that state during her past life as Soleir?
Thanks for the chapter
I'm taking note of all your questions and will slowly answer them in the chapters XDDDD
@DarkGodEM Thanks!
I'm having a feeling that Necro is just a poor young girl that just has some weird knowledge and tendencies from Soleir. But she's young and unexpierenced.
@Xobotun So far I've been thinking that it was just the influence of the young body on the mind, just like in the case of Ryoma Takebayashi. Where the level of his poker face dropped after he was a kid again. But in the case of Necro in addition to the youth of the body influencing her mind, there is also the fact that her gender has been changed from male to female and there are neurological differences between men and women.
From what I read, these neurological differences give women some tendency to be more emotional, empathetic and expressive. Have more ease in verbal than mathematical, or logical activities and have some talent for multitasking. (careful with the interpretation)
Not to mention, that Necro spent a few years without the memories of her past life, she experienced childhood and adolescence a second time while she was a well-loved daughter. The weird thing would be if the basis of her personality didn't change a bit, right?
Taking all this into account, I think Necro is still in the process of getting used to these neurological differences, relearning how to control her emotions and establish her personality like any teenager, right?
@Gin0001 Well, I still don't get if Necro is Soleir, or a different entity.
There are things that point out that she's still pretty much Soleir, like her wanting to get these "bandits" as skeletons in this chapter, or like reuniting with the white-magic moon elf whose name I forgot.
Necro spending several years with Soleir's memories unawakened is what ked me to thinking of Necro as a different being from Soleir. And I too used Ryoma to support my point of view. Like younger mind, hormones, etc. affecting his behaviour. :D
And yes, my initial thoughts a dozen of chapters ago were similar to yours. I just feel that in order not to make another wise reincarnated MarySue-sque mage, Necro has that "unexperienced girl" trait to her. It just felt a bit too forced to my expectations, and I decided to explain that to myself with the reasoning "don't treat Necro as an old experienced researcher hardened by constantly being on run, but treat her just like a teenager who just has some memories affecting her being".
Or maybe she is Soleir, just not completely awakened yet because of those neurophisiogical reasons.
This matter reminds me of the question raised in Ghost in the Shell: "does a person remain themselves after merging with another one". And that is a bit too deep philosphical discussion for me.
But yeah, as the story progresses, I think I'll be on the same line of thought with you, if she becomes more Soleiresque, I guess.
@Xobotun If you wanted to see the colder and stoic Necro she was like that before your memories as Soleir returned. I remember mentioning that she was stoic and only opened up and spoke to her mother, so much so that the maids only heard her voice after her memories came back, right?
@Gin0001 @Xobotun
You guys know we have a Theory Crafting channel on discord right? I think you'd feel at home there
@DarkGodEM In fact I just went to find out, come in and check now that you spoke.
I'm right to assume that
@DarkGodEM Now that I've stopped to think about it. You made Necro's personalities like a little princess and a fugitive researcher still in the middle of the merge process, and Necro was a little bipolar because of that so she could be a strong gap-moe generator, right?
@Gin0001 I'm blue dabadee dabada dabadee dabada
Doi um tapinha doi um tapinha não doi um tapinha doi um tapinha não d
Só um tapinha!
@DarkGodEM Well, Discord's great, but I'll have to pass on that. It'll surely eat through a lot of time and I trust comments here more.
@Xobotun Truth. Not to mention that conversations are buried by others of different themes really fast and it is difficult to find and continue them. I also prefer scribble comments as it is easier to follow without getting lost.
@DarkGodEM O que isso devia significar? Eu não entendi nada.
@Xobotun My discord is completely dead tho XD nobody says anything ever.
All it's for is to get new chapter notifications
@Gin0001 It's a song.
Means nothing. Just google either the english or the portuguese part
@DarkGodEM Lol encourage all the debates here so you get those juicy comments
@Xobotun Well Ace seems to be a reincarnation too. But that creates a lot of extra questions about Necro too. Like if it was that spell that was supposed to turn Soleil into a lich that did it, then why is there seemingly someone unrelated to the ritual reincarnated? Why did Necro run into her on the first day after fleeing her home?
My theory is that the prescence of Ace means that there has to be another layer to this reincarnation business than simply Soleil's ritual reincarnating him into Necro. Like maybe someone or something's interference caused these things to happend.