New Beginnings Chpt. 91: Reunion of Silver Linings

Fenri licked me over and over again. Seriously, I knew he missed me ⁠— probably ⁠— but this was too much! Too, too much! What’s with your paws in my stomach?! It hurts! And what about my face?! 

I squirmed on the ground under the relentless assault of Fenri, through the corners of my eyes I caught the glimpses of the Aizen followers; their faces were full of scorn among other emotions such as contempt and one of them even had anticipation. Well, I thought it was anticipation. 

Aizen looked at me, holding her sword in one hand and in the other she patted Ari. She just smiled sadistically at me. Hey! Jer and the Holy Knight walked away behind a bush though there was no speaking so far⁠— or I thought so anyway. My hearing wasn’t perfect. Though… 

Why could I hear people mutter now!? It was weird! I didn’t want to hear people hush to each other about how disgusting my existence was to them, I didn’t want to hear random gossip. 

“Soo⁠—” A voice entered my ears. It came from the bush. “My name’s Adams. Call me Adams⁠— Nono, Adam⁠— Adams? Whatever you like!” His hushed voice carried anticipation. What? 

There was silence. “I see, you can call me Jermund.” Jer answered, his voice unwavering. 

There was another silence. “Jermund? Like⁠— Jermund The King of Zirconia? The Destroyer?! The hero!?” Adams spoke like a fangirl; except well… hushed. “Ah forgive me… I just studied a lot of the history of Sorinea.” 

After yet another pause. “Indeed, I am named after that, Jermund. Pleased to meet you Adams…” I could tell my summon was struggling to not die inside. Even though he was an undead, he probably wasn’t doing too pretty. 

“Right, forgive my… overzealousness. My train of speculation was too… striae, inchoate in a way. ” What? What the fuck did he just say? Stria⁠— what?! 

“I see, we should regroup, the necromancer might go rogue.” Jer didn’t know what Adams had just said either! 

They walked past the bush, and soon entered my sight. Fenri had calmed down somewhat and just laid on top of me. I made eye-contact with Adams’ visor but he didn’t say anything and simply naturally looked away. 

Aizen thought for a second, lightly tapping a rock with her sword. Ugh. Well it was a katana, but still! How much can you bang it up?! She probably had been hitting it against every single pebble on the ground! 

She tapped for another second and opened her mouth. “Necromancer apprehended!” She exclaimed at her group, who all awed at her display. Sigh. “Let us go.” 

“Ah, I am coming along.” Ash added talking to Aizen. “I have some business to deal with Ms Necromancer Kuro.” 

Aizen gave her a weird look. “Is that so? I require that you wait for the king to judge her in order to have business with… Kuro the Necromancer.” Sigh. 

“I cannot do that.” Ash shook her head. “The Church of Grades owes me a lot.” 

“Is that so?” Aizen said with genuine confusion. “I see, come along then.” 

Aizen nodded at Ash before coming to me and moving Fenri away. She grabbed my collar and made me stand up. She also had rope in her hands ⁠— from her spacial storage? ⁠— tightening it around my hands I couldn’t move them anymore. Though, it was just rope. 

“That hurts.” I whispered. 

“Sorry.” She meekly apologized. Her face distorted ever so slightly before going back to calmness. “Let us set towards Tortul. Where the Necromancer will be judged.” Aizen began walking away as she pulled the rope. Everyone gathered around from us, Adams and Jer at the front and back respectively. 

“I didn’t choose this.” I sighed. Who would’ve thought so much trouble would happen from a Legendary Armor? No that wasn’t it either. Most of the problem had to do with the dungeon. Nothing else, nothing more. 

I looked at the sky. So much for doing something differently. The Legendary Armor was a byproduct of doing whatever I liked along with Ari. To be honest we could’ve probably fled with Aizen somewhere else, far away from the church. Hell, if Aizen wasn’t with the church we could’ve probably still tried to run away. 

Well assuming she was with us. 

Ash approached me and leaned into my ear. “Even if you’re a necromancer, I’ll help. Take it as a thank you for the information about Dark Shadow.” 

Eh? 

However, thankfully she didn’t try approaching Aizen or the like ⁠— not even Jer or Adams. Though at the same time, she was on our side. But she did hear me call Aizen an ally so it was probably good. No confrontations with the dragon was for the best. 

As we walked, Aizen leisurely guided me with the rope, it wasn’t even tight. The actual thing that hurt was being forcefully lifted up⁠— it was so effortless too. Strong dragon! But to my surprise Aizen called Jer over and they began speaking. Between the two of them; again⁠— I could just hear them⁠— for some reason. Was it the new disguise or the ears? 

Haaa. 

“Heard you’re quite scary.” Jer offhandedly said. 

“I am terrifying.” Aizen nodded with a grin. “You’re contracted to Kuro, eh? How is it?” 

Jer pondered as we walked before finally looking at Aizen. 

“It’s not bad, my life was spared due to me being a talking undead.” Aizen paused and looked at Jer in disbelief, making him pause as well. “What?” 

“Well, it makes sense⁠— undead skeletons don’t talk.” Jer seemingly sighed hearing Aizen’s comment. 

“That’s beside the point⁠— I’ve been treated rather nicely; even got an armor upgrade. Moreover, she likes smithing a lot; it’s nice to see someone enjoy something.” 

Huh? That was certainly a new perspective. 

“Yep, she is super nice. I missed her dearly.” Aizen paused, giving me a quick glance. “Don’t tell her though.” 

I heard everything! Jer nodded at Aizen in acknowledgement. 

“Though she has a weird aura of death you know?” Jer added. Making Aizen pause. 

“Did she take off the ring?” 

Jer shook his head. “I don’t know what ring you’re talking about, she tried sharing mana with me and the aura was unleashed. Scaring away the adventurers in the dungeon.” 

Aizen nodded in realization. “Let me guess, they called her necromancer.” 

“Yep.” Jer nodded. 

“That still doesn’t explain the burning town. Actually⁠—” She looked at me and began pulling the rope. 

Some people began looking at her, I mean she was about to speak to her prisoner. Who wouldn’t want to watch! Well I wouldn’t since I was the one that was going to be talked to. Wait, I got arrested. But did I even match the like testimonies? 

“What are y’all looking at?” Aizen hissed at the priests. “Go forward! Damned deacons!” Ha? 

Everyone seemed to have a shiver creep up on them and they sped the pace. Deacons? So they weren’t priests, just a bunch of deacons. Aizen looked at me and stood before me, but then turned to her sight behind her and looked at the Holy Knight⁠— it was the other one⁠— Adams. 

“Do go away too, make sure the rescued girl is safe.” 

Adams nodded. “Will do.” I guess they were talking about Ari. He walked away, and now we stood inbetween each other. Jer, Fenri, Aizen and I. 

“And you, new summon. Stand behind me so they can’t see what I am doing.” Aizen commanded again. “Tell me what happened in the town Kuro,” She said with a sigh. “It can’t be worse than me, right?” Worse, he… 

I cleared my throat, slightly shaking. “Well, we ran away from the necromancy thing. And somethings led to another, and somethings led to me smithing an armor. Long story short an elf tried to take it away from me, and I protested by summoning Fifi, and Jer making them fight each other.” I paused. “Setting the entire square on fire, no casualties.” 

“And⁠— Why do you look like that?” Aizen asked me. 

“Well… I enchanted some things to change my appearance so we could leave town and go away unperturbed.” Buuuut. “But we ran into you.” 

Aizen thought for a second, she began fiddling with the sword she carried, pulling it out of the scabbard and back in. Upon closer inspection the scabbard looked like it was made out of bone. 

“Alright, so you look different from how the adventurers described you, different from when the incident of the town occurred. But at the same time I cannot go with my hands empty.” Aizen said in defeat. “This sucks, how about we just walk away, like right now?” 

Eh. “But what about the Holy Knight?” 

“That⁠— I guess we should just get back to the capital. I’ll have your custody. Though…” Aizen looked at me and we made eye contact. 

She moved closer and looked at my face. Did I look funny. “It’s rather nostalgic.” She mentioned. “Reminds me of old you. But you’re still you nonetheless…” Her voice grew rather silent. “I missed you.” 

“What?” I missed her too, but… 

Before I could react she hugged me deeply. “I missed you so much. Ah, I shouldn’t cry…” Her head was glued to my chest, all I could feel was the slight shaking of her body. 

Why? “What happened?” 

“Everything. I accidentally killed someone again…” Right… “I simply want to be told I am not bad, but I keep doing bad things…” 

I paused. “You’re not bad you know… Well I don’t think so…” I tried to hug her back, but my hands were tied. All I could do was nudge her with my body. 

“But I killed. And Fenri had to save me.” Fenri did an acknowledgement woof, making me smile slightly. 

“Well…” I paused. “We should just stick together from now on. I also… regret things on my side.” I sighed. 

“Right…” Aizen hugged me tighter making me smile.

A disastrous dragon, a reckless craftsman, and a supreme priest of the church gone rogue… What a weird family. I chuckled. But I love the two. I found myself looking forward to our trip as we began walking again. I just couldn’t wait to get this over with, and simply look forward. 

I had a family to go on adventures with!