Chapter 45 – Power Thief

In the northern part of the empire, there is a huge wall blocking the northern land beyond, and it is said that even if you ride a horse for seven days and nights without stopping, you will not be able to reach the other end.

All the soldiers of the empire serving there have been consumed to protect the empire like a torch that illuminates the darkness beyond the wall to prevent demons and demons from trying to cross the wall for 300 years since the demon king woke up.

The life given to such soldiers was based on the principle of survival of the strong, only surviving for two years to prove their strength, so that they could survive the arduous service of the barrier and be deployed to other regions as proven strong bones.

The problem is, those who can’t stand such a hard military life have existed in any era.

Such people naturally risked their lives and deserted. It was because his desire to live right away, even if he was caught and hung, was stronger than the teeth of the dark wolf that tried to bite his neck.

Of course, most deserters die for a number of reasons.

They are sometimes caught by northern patrols and summarily executed on the spot, and are caught by imperial search parties and used as bait with their tendons cut to lure demon beasts on the battlefield where blizzards rage.

Sometimes they were caught and dragged to death by bounty hunters and villagers who were looking for a bounty on deserters, so the Northern Wall called such deserters living dead.

A year ago, on the day they couldn’t stand the procession of the corpses of the Lich Corps commander, countless living corpses fled the battlefield. Most of the living corpses were killed on the spot by the swords of the Imperial Knights, or by waves of corpses that sensed the horrors of the living corpses.

However, there was a group of people who watched countless worthless deaths and instead of running away behind the barrier, they crossed the barrier and fled to the land of demons.

These three men grew up together in a village located near the Wall, and were close friends. The three men, who had grown up listening to frightening stories from the town’s eccentric old woman, had a shallow knowledge of how to shun corpses and live beyond the Wall.

Immediately after fleeing the battlefield, the three men firmly believed they had made a wise choice.

The unit they fell into had their defense line breached and the comrades they fought with just before were chewed up and eaten by the corpses, but if they hadn’t run away, they would have been chewed up by the corpses and become the Demon King’s servants.

The first man was a hunter. He was tall and had leadership qualities, and he had a girl in his hometown who he promised to marry.

The Hunter said that even if the Empire won the battle, they would only live beyond the Wall for three months, as they would not find themselves among the corpses after all.

The second man was a carpenter. Although he was more than three inches shorter than the hunter, the carpenter, a descendant of the extinct dwarves, had good dexterity and good strength and stamina.

The carpenter was a man who knew how to prepare for a fight with monsters by building a shelter for the three of them and repairing the weapons they had fled with.

The third man was a bully. The bully, who was thin in build and lacking insignificant organs, was a man who always passed the time by eating a glass of beer at a tavern in town.

The bully, who always blamed others for his misfortune, when a conscript came to town, he finally decided to become a soldier, saying that he was on his way to success. It was a man like a parasite that eats.

But the hunter and the carpenter did not blame the bully. It may be because what they went through at the Wall was such a terrible series of battles, and the melancholy eased a little when they remembered the bluffs of old bullies in taverns.

The three men spent quite a while on the other side of the barrier. At the point where two months had passed, even the mind-shattering hoodlums felt a glimmer of hope and their eyes began to focus.

But the luck didn’t last long. The last month has been horrible. The blizzard that hit the north showed no signs of stopping.

The few plants that could be eaten in this land contaminated by demons were deeply frozen to the ground and could not be dug up, and on days when the blizzard stopped, demon beasts began to infest the surroundings.

Under the narrow underground tunnel, the three of them ate the snow that was scattered all over the place, enduring terrible fear and thirst day after day. When this blizzard passes, we will be able to return to our hometown, so we comforted each other and believed and endured.

However, even the smallest hopes were of no value in the face of hunger and fear. After two weeks, no one said anything.

Even in the third week, they were starving, and they couldn’t even tell whether they were in reality or in a nightmare because they couldn’t sleep due to the demon’s cries coming day and night.

On the late night of the 4th week, the hunter, who woke up to the sound of a small sob, couldn’t even tell whether he was dreaming or waking up.

In the moonlight shining through the entrance of the cave made by cutting down trees, a human figure was faintly visible, and the hunter stood up in wonder.

“What’s going on… Is the blizzard finally over?”

Squeak. The sound of a clap, cutting something. The hunter was still asleep, so he didn’t know what the moonlight was shining on. Just feeling something creepy, I managed to get myself up and put his hand her on her shoulder her.

“What are you doing right now… I’m afraid you’ll freeze to death if you eat fur clothes…”

The moment his eyes caught the sight over his shoulder of a human crouching like a monster, the hunter thought he was having a terrible nightmare. Like every night

The bully was chopping up and eating the carpenter. The bully with a grotesquely twisted skeleton leaked an unpleasant liquid mixed with the carpenter’s blood and saliva from the corners of his mouth his, while his eyes were laughing happily and coveting the meat he hadn’t eaten in a long time.

Alas, the hunter let out a short shriek like metal from his own mouth and took a step backwards, but from beyond the wooden door illuminated by the moonlight, he could feel the eyes of the monsters peering into this place. The blizzard to hide the smell of human blood is over tonight.

It’s such a terrible nightmare. He hoped he would open his eyes soon, the hunter smiled helplessly.

Finally, on the day of the month, the bully wasn’t what everyone remembered. Maybe it’s because he accepted the contract offered by the sweet voice in his ear the moment he gave up his humanity and the magi he ingested endlessly from the snow falling in the demon king’s realm.

The existence that appeared in front of such a rogue was a person called a lich who was one of the demon lord’s legion commanders.

“It is said that humans create a thing called solitude, trapping poisonous insects in jars and letting them eat each other until the last one survives. Then, the worst tools are born.”

The ghastly red eyes shining through the empty skull, he looked at the tool he had created with pleasure. In the long immortality, the lich’s only amusement was to twist mortals into his own creations.

In that sense, this ‘solitude’ was quite a trick. He only used three unexpected goals, but the completed solitude was so twisted that even he was holding a demon that was difficult to predict.

Perhaps because she was crouching down to live, she was hiding her demonic energy to the point where it would be hard for even herself, who was observing right in front of her, to perceive it if she wasn’t focused, but in her eyes that glered at her, there was a humanity that she had protected only for her own desires.

“Do humans call guys like you living corpses?”

As the lich lightly beckoned him to come closer, Solitude approached him like a beast and bowed his head. This is because if both animals and people can recognize the person who has the right to take over their life and death, both beast-like people and animals wearing human masks can do the same.

“I like that nickname, let me call you the living corpse.”

As the lich beckoned, a small jewel floated from the inside of the lich’s robe and lodged between the living corpse’s forehead. The living corpse gnashed his teeth in terrible pain. The power rising along with the pain filled the living corpse’s endless desire so sweetly that it gave him pleasure.

“Go, steal the power of the beasts that call themselves gods, and use that power to turn the place humans call the Academy into hell. Engrave the terrible things you went through into the human brain.”

The living corpse nodded his head. I couldn’t understand even half of the story because of the pain, but the senses that had been altered by demonia felt that if I followed those words, I would be able to satisfy my endless desires even a little bit.

**

Daniel, an aristocrat of the empire, was riding a carriage to go to the academy. Daniel, the second son of the Count, enjoyed going to the academy this time.

As long as his eldest brother his, a well-known administrator, was confirmed as the de facto successor of the family, Daniel could not always live in the family. But he was indulging in happy fantasies that it would be different at the academy.

He may be friendly with boys his age, or he may be able to find his specialty his and stand tall in his family his. Maybe he will spend a pleasant romance with a true girl.

The family knight who escorted him was also flawed because he spoke little, but he seemed really reliable. He was the third strongest knight in the family, given to him by his father in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

So, I would have been able to arrive at the academy happily tomorrow and make a fresh start. I had to.

“Sal, please save me! I am a noble! My father will pay my ransom!”

The knight who went out to deal with the horse rolling on the ground, the coachman’s neck, and the rogue boat that suddenly attacked the carriage was lying down with his arms torn off before even a minute had passed.

“Please, my family has mines and isn’t too far from the capital, so I’m sure they can give you a lot of money. So please…!”

Perhaps Daniel’s strength was his grasp of the situation.

Instead of freezing or freaking out at this surreal sight and crawling away on his limbs, he immediately knelt down and held back his tears and began to tell in detail about what he could give.

“…Money? Mine? Nobility?”

Daniel nodded his head even more vigorously as the eerie yellow eyes of an unknown being looked at him and muttered. At least his hunch that he wasn’t a monster was right.

“Yes! Yes! Seriously, I can give you enough to play and eat for the rest of your life! So please save your life…!”

As long as she’s alive, my father will definitely send a tracking party. Maybe he paid a ransom so he could really get himself free. As long as I’m alive, I can go to the academy next year or the year after that.

“…I envy you, I envy you, I really envy you. Would you enjoy it? Will your life be happy?”

Hearing his own words of his, he started muttering that he was envious of the existence in front of him.

“What, what are you talking about? I’ll give you money…”
“Money is nice, but I envy anything more valuable than that… “

It was difficult to properly recognize the figure approaching him in a hurry because it was a dark night with the moon covered.

However, rather than being a monster, it was closer to the form of a wicked monster that could come out of a fairy tale. If a human could conceive of something in the form of a bad, hideous human, this was what it would look like, Daniel thought.

“What is your name..?”
“Daniel, this is Daniel! Daniel Hagenhertz!”

In response, the monster smiled as if it would tear its mouth open. Feeling the warmth in his eyes his as he gently stroked his shoulder his, Daniel felt relieved for a moment.

“From now on, I am Daniel. Daniel Hagenhertz.”

Awesome

With that, Daniel Hagenhertz died. The living corpse felt little value in it.

Instead, as the mana and blood from the blood of Daniel and the knight enveloped the living corpse, the appearance of the living corpse began to change little by little. After a while, the living corpse became Daniel Hagenhertz.

It was a new ability acquired after stealing power from a huge beast. If the living corpse consumed the person it killed and absorbed its power, he could ‘steal’ the person’s memory and appearance.

“Academy, hee hee, I am a noble from now on. Hee hee, happy school life!”

How much fun will it be at the academy? The more I imagined it, the harder it was to hold back the laughter that burst out.

Suddenly, thinking that he had to hurry, ‘Daniel’ started running towards the port in a bizarre running posture. He was faster than a horse and more hideous than a spider, but no one could recognize his presence.

I’m sure you’ll be happy to arrive at the academy tomorrow, and you’ll be able to make a ‘new start’.