Chapter 173
Corpse Disposal
Translator : PolterGlast
Looking down at the completely motionless Dragon Zombie,
we pondered our next move.
"If this really is the cause of the plague, leaving it
here would be bad, right?"
"We should definitely dispose of it immediately! Should
we bury it? Or burn it?"
"If we burn it, it might release some strange fumes, so
wouldn't burying it be best?"
"No, I can manage the disposal itself with my magic.
The problem is whether we should dispose of it right now."
Veronica and Mona
had gone to call for reinforcements, so I felt we should leave it as is until
they arrived. The feud with Greg remained unresolved, and while the Dragon
Zombie definitely existed, it hadn't been definitively proven to be the
cause of the plague yet.
Furthermore, if the Red Wyvern had been turned into a
Dragon Zombie by a third party, clues pointing to the culprit might
remain. It was true that disposing of it quickly was better, but we were caught
in a dilemma where we couldn't do so immediately.
"That's true...! For now, should we wait at the
mountain hut until around noon tomorrow, and if they don't come, dispose of it
then?"
"Even if you went back now, Graham-san, it would
be night over there, so you couldn't do anything."
"Right. For now, when morning comes, I'll go down the
mountain alone and check the immediate area. If no one has arrived by then,
let's dispose of it."
" Agreed! So
with that decided, I want to sleep! I mean, the Dragon Zombie really didn't have to come in the middle of the night!"
"Truly. I want to wash my body lightly and then
sleep."
"I agree too. Let's return to the hut immediately and
sleep."
They were probably pumped up from the battle, but we needed
to rest our bodies. After lightly enclosing the Dragon Zombie's corpse
in a dome of magic, we decided to return to the mountain hut to rest.
Then, the morning of the next day arrived. As planned, I
descended the mountain alone and checked the road to Klingark, but there
was no sign of Veronica or Mona.
I stuck around until about noon, but since there was not
even a hint of anyone approaching, I decided to assume reinforcements weren't
coming. There was a high probability that some kind of dispute had occurred, so
waiting here would be pointless. The magic dome I set up yesterday offered only
peace of mind at best, so we should go back and dispose of the corpse soon.
"Ah, welcome back, Graham! Did Veronica and the others show up?"
"No, there was no sign of anyone coming. So, let's
dispose of the Dragon Zombie's corpse and descend. Just to be safe, if
we take the Dragon Zombie's skin back, it should serve as proof."
"Agreed. Aoi-chan and I will pack up our things,
so could we ask you to handle the corpse disposal, Graham-san?"
"Yeah, of course. I'll leave the packing to you
two."
Leaving the preparations to them, I decided to handle the
disposal of the Dragon Zombie's corpse. Well, calling it 'disposal' was
an exaggeration; I was just going to burn it to ash with Purifying Fire.
Thinking about this, I approached the still-abandoned corpse
of the Dragon Zombie and first used my dagger to peel off just the skin.
Even the skin was rotting, so I really didn't want to carry it, but it was
necessary for proof of subjugation.
After that, I immediately used the magic Purifying Fire
to burn it away until not a trace remained. Thanks to Purifying Fire, no
strange smoke was released, and if the Dragon Zombie was indeed the
cause, there should be no further damage.
All that was left was to return safely to Klingark.
Personally, I felt that 'subjugating' Klingark would be more troublesome
than subjugating the Dragon Zombie... but there was no point in thinking
about that now. So, I decided to regroup with Ginia and the others, who
should have finished packing, and descend the mountain.
Carrying the large black egg and the Dragon Zombie's
skin, we managed to descend safely from Mount Cube. From that point on,
we just kept pushing straight toward Klingark,
but... there is still no sign of Veronica
and the others.
Even though we hadn't gone that far ahead, if they had been
moving quickly, it would be strange for us not to have crossed paths by now. I
had nothing but a bad feeling about this, but not returning wasn't an option.
Letting out a light sigh while on the road back to Klingark—
Haa... It seems my bad feeling hit the mark.
I saw dozens of fully armed adventurers blocking the road.
At the head of those adventurers stood Greg, and his eyes were
completely devoid of laughter.
However, the only saving grace was that the Crimson Rose was nowhere to be seen. Since the Crimson Rose are the highest-ranked adventurers in Klingark, I didn't sense much of a threat from this group. I was taken aback by the sheer number of people, but even if we were attacked, I could likely suppress them without causing any casualties.
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