“Lukalis? What kind of a name is that?”

“It is a normal name, at least in elven community! It is nowhere as weird as your name, sir Runfar!” the ghost now protested.

To anyone else watching this scene, it would look like Runfar was having a shouting match with himself. It looked crazy to say the least.

Apparently, ability to see ghosts was an extremely rare ability.

Among all the staff in the mansion, including the Shadow Lords, the only one other than Runfar who could see ghosts was Morphus, and that was only by the virtue of being an angel.

“Still, if your granddaughter is as useful as you say she is…then it might be a waste to get rid of her. However, you are not going to go away until you are assured of her safety, are you not?”

“Correct.”

“Speaking of which, can she see you?”

“Curiously enough, no. After I have passed away, I tried to communicate with many elves and humans, but before you, none even noticed or even heard my voice.”

“I see, that much is self-explanatory. Now then, I will have you tell me the exact circumstances of this Lady Lukalis, and unless you wish of me to think of her as disposable, you would best not leave a single detail.”

“I understand. Though, it is a long tale.”

“I have all the time in the world.”

Ghost of Liren Kreschen did not know that his beneficiary was quite literal in his assessment.

That was one of the many ways Runfar Sevilles obtained information, by talking to the ghosts that had information about specific people.

But due to the fact that none was aware about the deceased people surrounding them, everyone thought that Runfar was somehow a person who knew things that he normally should never be able to know.

The fact that he sometimes could tell an entire life’s story of a person he just met made many question whether he possessed a superior insight or was simply had a god given gift. None could have known the truth.

* * *

“I suppose it is time for you to go back to your old body”

‘That is indeed so, master. Staying any longer within your body is too risky.’

Morphus now proceeded to exit Dark Lord’s body, his ethereal form that seemed to be made of light now emerged from within Dark Lord; his form seemed to be an eerie looking winged humanoid made of ghost-like light.

Now, the energy being proceeded to enter back into the catatonic body of a child lying on top of the bed; the disembodied angel and the vessel now were one.

Morphus’s previous vessel was kept in that room for all this time, Dark Lord occasionally checked up on the vessel and Morphus cast spell on it to make sure it would stay alive for the duration of time Morphus was not occupying it.

Yet, in many senses, the child was dead, his body was alive, but his mind and consciousness were already gone. Without Morphus inside that body, the child was in constant vegetative state.

Considering it would be completely dead without Morphus’s presence, it might be for the best for Morphus to occupy this vessel; at least it will be useful for someone even in such a state.

Now, the child proceeded to stand up from the bed, his eyes opened wide, filled with life that seemed to so sharply contrast the child’s nearly dead state from before.

“Apologies, master. Instead of two weeks I ended up occupying master’s body for two months.”

“We got carried away. Frankly, with you around, I was far stronger than I ever was. If it wasn’t for the danger of prolonging this partnership, I would have wanted you to stay within my body for much longer.”

“Sentiment is mutual. Unlike this child’s body, your body was stronger, thus it lasted longer.”

“Right, by the way…You are aware you can’t just show yourself in front of the staff of the mansion after being ‘gone’ for two months right?”

“That would generate suspicion wouldn’t it? I see.”

“Which is why, I want you to get out of the mansion and come back in the morning. Tell Mordon or anyone who questions you that I sent you on an errand, make up one if you want to, and that you just came back after finishing the task I gave you to complete. That should clear up any loose ends.”

“Understood”

Morphus, now occupying the body of a child, proceeded to unfold his wings and fly through the window.

“Well, I suppose it is time for me to get some rest.”

For some reason Dark Lord was feeling rather sleepy, which was strange, considering that ever since he ended up being half ‘turned’ he did not need to sleep, he could sleep, but like eating and breathing, it no longer was necessary.

‘Who knows? Maybe I am regaining little bit of my common senses? Desire to sleep is natural, so I should probably feel happy that my need for sleep has returned, right?’

Dark Lord now proceeded to lie on his bed and drifted off to sleep after closing his eye.

* * *

Runfar opened his left eye; he was gazing at the ceiling.

Trying to stand up, he found that he was unable to lift his head up.

Much to his chagrin he realized that he could not move any part of his body.

It was as if his body went limp all of a sudden. No, that was not right, he could feel his body parts, it is just trying to move them seemed to be excruciatingly painful, at least on the left side.

On the right side, his body was moving, but much slower than before.

‘This is definitely weird!’

It was almost as if he had done high intensity exercises for several days in a row without stopping for breaks.

His muscles or at least the muscles that he had left were aching like crazy.

His body seemed to have been pushed to its limits and now he was suffering the aftereffects.

The mana in his body seemed to have been drained to almost nothing, it was as though he was sucked dry.

With tremendous pain and effort, Runfar managed to sit up on the bed, grabbing the sheets with his right hand to balance himself.

Suddenly, his right hand cracked and fell off on the bed, detached from his forearm.

“Are you kidding me?!”

Then, Runfar heard a sound of someone outside his room.

He quickly hid the detached hand under a pillow, thinking it was one of the staff.

Seeing a skeletal hand would make anyone scream in terror.

“Milord, it is Camilla, Morphus has arrived, so I came here to report…” Camilla Kumis entered the room, seeing him made Dark Lord feel such a relief that he sighed with a smile.

“Camilla, perfect timing. Come here.”

Dark Lord gestured towards himself.

“Um, m-me? Come to milord?”

“Yes you, just come closer.”

Seemingly not noticing that Dark Lord was missing an arm, Camilla’s face flushed red as he came closer, now he was standing over Dark Lord’s bed, just an arm’s reach away.

“It this good enough?”

“Oh, for crying out loud!”

Dark Lord proceeded to pull Camilla towards himself with his left hand, embracing Camilla in what seemed to be a one armed hug.

“Mi-mi-milord?!”

But Dark Lord paid him no heed as he kept firm hold of his embrace on the snake demon.

Camilla seemed to be trembling for some reason, but it was not from fear, but sheer bliss.

~Camilla’s beloved master took Camilla in his embrace…Camilla couldn’t be more happy~

After a moment that seemed to last for hours, Dark Lord let go of his servant.

“Thank you, you saved me there. I wouldn’t know what I would do without you.”

“Um, milord, that was?”

“Mana transfer. I needed some mana from you; don’t worry, I made sure not to take too much.”

Dark Lord had used the right side of his chest to absorb mana from Camilla, usually he would absorb mana with his right hand, but that was not currently applicable, so he thought that any undead part of his body would do the job.

Turns out he was right.

“So the purpose of that action was to…”

“Transfer mana from your body to mine. As you can see my right hand…” Dark Lord gestured to his stump “…kind of fell off.”

He took off the pillow covering his skeletal right hand.

“Your arm! Does it hurt? I did not even notice….We must do something immediately….”

“No need to worry, you already helped me plenty.”

“What do you mean, milord?”

“Well…” Dark Lord now proceeded to take the detached hand and put it on the bony stump, in a moment, the skeletal hand reattached itself without a problem.

“Just as I thought, so it was about mana after all. While this does solve the problem, it also makes a rather disturbing case; if I were to ever have no mana in my body then my body might fall apart just like that. Mana is the only thing keeping the right side of my body stable and moving. My need for mana is far more serious than I thought.”

Camilla gulped at Dark Lord’s words, it seems like his master never had much fortune in life, in fact, sometimes Camilla wondered whether his master’s fortune was worse than most.

“Well, there is nothing we can do about that now. Anyways, where is Morphus?”

“He is waiting right outside the door, milord.”

“Tell him he can come in.”

“Of course”

The door to Runfar’s bedroom opened and closed, a lone child entered the room.

“Master!” Morphus was immediately alarmed at seeing Dark Lord’s state of health, Camilla may not have noticed at first, but nothing escaped angel’s eyes.

He immediately rushed to Dark Lord’ side before Dark Lord raised a hand to stop him in place.

“Morph, did everything go as planned?”

“Wha…yes! Mordon or the maids did not suspect a thing, though they did question master’s judgment of sending a tiny child on errands…”

“Good, at least that much is taken care of. Now then, please explain this.”

He gestured to himself

“I can hardly move, much less stand up, I barely managed to sit up on the bed. I believe you know what’s wrong, don’t you?”

“Indeed I do, for that I sincerely apologize!”

“Do tell me, what exactly happened? Why can’t I stand up?”

“Well, as I have stated before, housing an angel puts a lot of pressure upon the vessel, the body is overused. It takes a lot out of a vessel to contain an angel, and you housed me for so long…this is a natural result.”

“I see, so it is your fault then.”

“I am sincerely sorry!”

“Damn right you are!”

Dark Lord couldn’t help but exclaim before calming down.

“Is this permanent?”

“No. Your body should eventually recover, but it will take some time.”

“Just great. Now I have this to worry about.”

Dark Lord sighed with annoyance.

Trying to get off the bed, Dark Lord fell off, only to be caught in time by Camilla and Morphus. Sometimes, it is great to have devoted servants.

“Well, it seems while my legs are still functional, they are weak, I will not be walking for a while.”

“Worry not, milord, as long as Camilla is here, you can always have a shoulder to lean on.” Snake demon stated proudly.

“Same with me as well, and it is kind of my fault too, I ended up carried away and overstayed my welcome. I will do anything to make up for my sin!”

“Enough of that. Just help me walk, that much is plenty.”

Morphus extended his wings, helping Dark Lord to stand up with them, now he put his left hand on Camilla’s shoulder.

Now Dark Lord was leaning on Camilla for support.

“I hope there are walking canes in the mansion” Dark Lord muttered.

After he recovers a bit, he should be able to walk while leaning on a cane.

His body was in a horrible shape, he might as well be completely immobile, and what is worse, he still had many tasks to take care of.

‘Well, what is the use of complaining about my situation, it will change nothing, might as well take care of things.’

Besides, his body being in such a state was only a temporary problem; his body should heal quicker if he consumes more mana….