A wise man once said one finds its destiny on the path on the road to avoid it.

Well, now I have my own new interpretation.

I always find misfortune whether trying to run away from it or facing it.

“Ai… de … moi.”

With my ax, I swung at something’s knee causing it to fall down, just at my level.

With a ruthless swing, I severed its head, sending the thing rolling on the ground.

“Finally done.”

“Far from it.”

The next instant I heard something similar to what happened in the cave.

Back from the noise alone, I knew that thing was ill-omening

From the smell, I knew we were surrounded by a sea of cadavers.

Human cadaver.

After condemning that cave, we immediately decided to leave the area, only to stumble upon more and more of these things on our way to the inner part of the forest.

Unlike the others from the cave, the one we met wasn’t as weak as the one in the cave. But still, it was far weaker than us. Some of them were capable of using something I assume was aina, except that they were just lumps of walking meat to us.

These corpses don’t seem to belong to nobles, only to what I can only assume were aina-users, and to be honest, if these corpses were noble, I would have a grounded theory or at the very least a logical explanation for what these things are.

If I were to count, I would say that with those we killed here, we met about fifty other ones.

In fact, "killed" might not be the appropriate verb since the moment we "killed" them, the strange liquid would act to put them back together.

The most unsettling part about these things is how they came at me with their "Ai… de … moi.", from their clothing and that language, it was clear that these things, were once human from a very old time.

“Far from it.”

The next instant, I heard something similar to what happened in the cave.

Back then, from the noise alone, I knew that thing was ill-omening

From the touch, when it grabbed me, I knew it was dead, but the noise was that of a lump of flesh getting back together.

And it was later confirmed by Han that that thing's lump of flesh was moving to cluster together, seemingly thanks to the green liquid.

I was not able to witness it on numerous occasions, but that green thing was, at least to me, the product of some sort of healing magic. One that allows one to control corpses.

These things were corpses and were merely controlled by that same strange magic.

These corpses have been turned into puppets,

As to what controls these things, my initial thoughts were toward a theory in which all of these are the doings of a magical beast, but after much pondering, I realized that this is most likely the doing of a certain thing I’ve heard about only by reading books in the secret room. It was something that was supposed to be told to us after our coronation, but by accessing the report and books of the first owner of the Rosetta Manor, who was also a Bishop of the church, I came to know about that thing very early in my life.

Just thinking of it gave me shivers.

Having left the swampy area in which the Chrackt lived, we reached the place in which our paths were "blessed" with countless encounters with these corpses.

Since backing wasn’t an option, we decided to incapacitate each of them as we crossed the road.

I had the feeling that as long as we kept going forward, we’d eventually stumble upon the origin of these things.

It took us several days, but in the end, we eventually stumbled upon it.

I wasn’t interested in the source of this abomination for any rational reason, but hearing these things murmuring "ai… de… moi", though I didn’t know what it meant, I knew, I felt it, it was some sort of pleading.

At first, I thought about not interfering even if I were to stumble upon it but but in the end, I decided to intervene if I were to be given the opportunity.

"Are you sure about this?"

We were now at the ledge of an immense sinkhole, which was in decadence compared to the nearby environment.

From inside the giant crater, only a tree could be found, but that tree was hardly unnoticeable, for that tree was so big that it grew from the bottom of the forest and still rivaled the giant tree on the surface.

"Yes, I’m sure of that."

"I guess we have no choice then."

We then jumped to the bottom

The crater was profound, but nothing compared to the Frozen Hell.

We landed on a very fairy-like flower field, a yellow and orange petalled flower.

Among that, very beautiful scenery, skeletons of monsters, small and big, could be seen.

A silhouette could be seen toward the tree.

In fact, there were two of them.

A man and a woman.

Both were wearing a very extravagant golden armor, which suggested that these two were, in their time, at least competent to fight to a certain extent.

The man was holding the woman in his arm, knee against the ground like a fallen knight, and a sword impaling his chest. His forehead was laying tenderly against the woman’s forehead.

I am no expert, but this looks kind of romantic, but one glance at their faces and their blonde hair told me that these two were not lovers, but rather brother and sister.

And it’s imperative to be precise that both of them were very well conserved, at least compared to the other "humans" we met lately.

"It seems your guess was spot on."

"It seems. Who do you think is the one responsible for the mess from above."

"I’m not sure yet, but I think it’s the girl;"

As we got closer, the immobile man suddenly raised his head toward us. With his violet eyes, he glared at us.

If nobles are different from commoners at the moment of their birth and even before that, it is also the case for what’s in between and even on their death and after that.

Not only do nobles tend to be more or less immune to things such as certain illnesses, they are also capable of healing at a speed that is relatively more rapid than a commoner.

But they are also most likely due to the fact that our mana generally doesn’t feel the strain of aging.

They may wrinkle, their hair might turn white over time, but it does not incapacitate or strain them in any way.

When a noble dies naturally or chooses to die naturally, his body will enter a state of death in which his corpse will not rot, but instead will continue to produce mana just like he did during his lifetime.

It is a different case when a noble is killed the way the one killed was. When a noble dies that way, he, just like any human or animal, will be bound to the laws of nature and rot till nothing remains of them.

But still, even if a noble were to die that way, there is a certain thing that would allow one to make use of aggravated corpses, which is why the Archbishop and the teleporter man immediately retrieved the corpse of the clergyman with them as soon as they could.

Even in their corpses’ state, there is a certain thing they can still be of use for.

These were supposed to be taught to a noble immediately after their coronation, but thanks to the book I read in the hidden room, I was able to learn about it sooner than expected.

It does happen from time to time that nobles regain a semblance of consciousness, but at that point, they are nothing but an empty shell dotted with the ability to mimic a very specific characteristic of the noble in its life.

"A remnant," it is called.

For example, if the noble was, in his life, a fire swordman, its remnant would be an empty shell dotted with.

Even for the time of the ancestor who used to own the Rosetta Manor, cases of remnants among nobility defunts are rare.

From what we witnessed of the walking corpses, they were merely controlled or at the very least reanimated by a sort of healing magic.

As I said at first, I assumed it was the doing of a monster that possessed an ability similar to the DeathSeeker’s ability to make creatures produce their flesh cocoon.

But as we kept moving forward, I more and more accepting of the possibility that it would be the doing of a noble or remnants dotted with a sort of healing magic.

Which means that if we were to stumble upon the source of all of these messes, we would stumble upon something capable of healing magic to an extent.

Done glaring at us, the man murmured something to the woman in his hand, and a strange green light ran through every vein of her body.

The woman in the man’s arm awakened, stood up, and summoned from thin air, a white and golden long spear.

She stood side by side with the man, who also stood up, making them look like two war-lord.

From the outfits they were wearing, I think it is safe to assume that these two were related to the other walking corpse we met.

These walking corpses resembled a lost army, while these two reassembled two lost commanders.

"So which do you think is the one."

"The girl, that mana she’s exuding, it is similar to the one I felt from the "humans.", I let you take care of her yourself. Do you think it’s in your ropes?"

" It should be, but I’m not sure. If I’m capable of keeping her "alive" without... you know, killing her. So I’ll appreciate it if you were to dispose of the man as quickly as possible so that you could help me with the other one. "

"Got it."

I don’t know who these people are or how they ended up here.

But the Church, which is the one who is supposed to be the one in charge of exorcising cases of remanism, isn’t here, so, we are left with no other choice but to do it our own way.

But deep down somewhere, I know that the only reason I got involved in all of this is that I knew that healing magic was involved in a way or another.