The Undying King.

The being who had plunged the world into terror by transforming every citizen of the Vulcan Kingdom into undead—an immortal army.

Since undead essentially required no supplies, they made for a formidable military force. Moreover, they could raise their enemies' corpses as undead, teaching their opponents just how hopeless it was to fight against overwhelming numbers.

Did that mean necromancy, the foundation of the undead, had always been evil magic? No. It had been magic anyone could use, only to be strictly outlawed by the Holy Kingdom after the Undying King incident.

Such a shame about necromancy

It was genuinely great when used properly.

You didn't even need human corpses. Monster or animal corpses worked too. You could use them for labor.

I think it's the people abusing necromancy who are bad, not necromancy itself.

└You want to legalize necromancy and create another Undying King? Absolutely not.

└Then what about other magic? Isn't abuse the real problem? Other lethal magic is bad when you abuse it too.

└True, but the Central Plains never liked necromancy in the first place. If it had just been the Holy Kingdom banning it, maybe, but the Central Plains backing them made a huge difference.

└Still, banning it outright is a bit much...

└Exactly. Some people never even got to leave any last words.

└It's basically wiped out an entire promising profession. So many things have gotten more complicated because of it.

If it hadn't been for the Undying King

My father would never have been executed.

└That's awful. A lot of people resent the Holy Kingdom over that.

└My father was the greatest merchant.

└?? Why did he go down if he was a merchant?

└Fuck, was this guy a grave robber??

└Sounds more like human trafficking than grave robbing...

└Look at this fucking psycho...

└He should've lost his head ages ago lmaoooo

└Lmaoooo

└Is it assholes like that who made necromancy's reputation worse?

└Nah, that's an extreme case. Normally they use unidentified corpses.

└It's basically like losing your shit because a pharmacist made illegal drugs.

└Besides, human trafficking isn't exclusively connected to necromancy. That's just forcing a connection.

Necromancy was unsettling magic, not evil magic. On the contrary, it had brought the world benefits both great and small. Chief among them was replacing manual labor. In particular, it had contributed greatly to agriculture, the origin and cornerstone of human civilization.

Your ox died? You could revive it with necromancy.

Short on workers? All you had to do was ask a necromancer to provide labor.

Human corpses could be used too, though this required following fairly strict procedures. In particular, everyone detested the use of necromancy in warfare, so an unspoken rule forbade it. Any country that used necromancy in war would have no grounds to complain about becoming an international pariah.

Necromancy really is unsettling

Honestly, bringing corpses back to life is ominous in itself.

It feels evil, and there's something sinister about corpses.

└(Photo of a mounted death knight) Skeleton horses look cool as fuck though.

└Wow. That settles it. I'm bringing a horse back with necromancy.

└The Holy Kingdom will arrest you for that...

└Then I'll ride away on my horse.

└Lmao

Just laying out the facts.

Was the Undying King a bad guy? Yes.

Did the Holy Kingdom overreact? Yes.

Is necromancy unsettling magic? Yes.

Banning its use on humans would've been one thing. People are angry because they banned necromancy altogether.

Besides, they say it summons the souls of the dead, but even that isn't certain.

Have you ever seen a skeleton doing manual labor with a sense of self? I haven't.

I think something like a spirit inhabits them, like guardians, rather than them having selves of their own.

The corpses just follow whatever orders they're given.

└Then what about the people who summoned their ancestors with necromancy?

└That's when they have a definite link to them or something they left behind.

└What about liches and death knights, then?

└They're both closer to monsters, so that doesn't mean anything. Think goblin witch doctors, orc shamans, and gnoll magicians.

└What do you do for a living? Are you a professor?

└A shut-in forum dweller.

└Get out lmao

└It all sounded plausible, but that just tanked your credibility lol

└What's a forum loser doing analyzing anything lmao

After the Undying King crisis, which had nearly blanketed the world in corpses, necromancy became evil magic in people's eyes. Several eminent mages and scholars argued that abandoning it like this was a mistake, but their objections were futile. Too many people had suffered or lost loved ones because of what the Undying King had done.

At least in this generation, necromancy would never be seen again. That was what everyone thought.

I deciphered what Grylls posted

The Vulcan Kingdom's language is mostly lost, and this was the kind used by the upper classes, so it was hard to decipher.

But all of this is so shocking it's making my head spin... If it's true, the Holy Kingdom's in for an uproar.

└What's it say? Someone was saying earlier that the Holy Kingdom massacred them.

└The story goes that the Undying King appeared first, then the Holy Kingdom stepped in, right? But the order's reversed. The Holy Kingdom massacred the Vulcan Kingdom's people first, which led to the Undying King's creation...

└Does that even make sense? That's impossible to begin with...

└Probably because the Vulcan Kingdom had a small population and the Holy Kingdom was so powerful.

└No. I mean why would the Holy Kingdom massacre the Vulcan Kingdom's people? There has to be a reason.

└Apparently they asked for help defeating the Demon King? It says they refused, so the Holy Kingdom destroyed everything to make an example of them...

└Holy shit...

└If that's true, we're talking about more than an uproar.

There were a lot of strange things about it, honestly

People who were close to the Vulcan Kingdom said the Undying King had been practically a model ruler.

It's true he was well versed in necromancy, but he strictly forbade using it on the deceased.

He did allow it for special reasons, provided people followed the proper procedures.

The Vulcan Kingdom didn't have much territory, but its people had no trouble making a living.

It was weaker than other countries, but considering its size, it was doing pretty well.

Why would a man who knew how to be content become the Undying King and engulf the world? Going so far as to turn all his people into undead?

They say it was to conquer the world, but you'd have to be completely insane to do that. What's the point if you aren't alive to enjoy it? Why would he do something like that?

└So you're saying the Holy Kingdom has something to hide too?

└Yep, but only here on the forum lol

└True. If forum rumors get to them, they really must have a guilty conscience lol

└I don't get why records like that would be in the Forest of Four Seasons, either.

└It's just people making a fuss lol

When the shocking truth first spread across the forum, the users didn't believe it. It was difficult to believe in the first place, and above all, it had been discovered in the Forest of Four Seasons. The truth just happened to emerge from a book found while exploring the remotest of remote wildernesses?

The Forest of Four Seasons makes it more believable to me

If the Holy Kingdom was trying to kill everyone in the Vulcan Kingdom, fleeing into the Forest of Four Seasons makes sense.

The Undying King sent his scribe there as a last resort too. He was going to die either way.

└Sounds plausible.

└Nobody would've seen any records he left anyway.

└Except the guy who found them was Wild Grylls lol. The one fucker who can use the forum in the Forest of Four Seasons.

└What are the odds lmao

This is so out of nowhere no matter how I look at it

(Photo of an elf tilting their head)

Grylls found records about the Undying King while exploring? Don't you think that's a little too soon?

└So you're saying Grylls found them on purpose? In the Forest of Four Seasons?

└That doesn't make sense either. Guess it's just luck.

└Lmaoooo

└Look how fast you accepted that lol

Paradoxically, that was precisely what made it more credible. Grylls had even uploaded the books to the forum in their entirety. If he had only posted excerpts, people might have accused him of manipulating them. But since he'd taken the trouble to post everything, no one could say that.

And as had been mentioned time and again, the forum was a technology open to anyone, regardless of age or gender, as long as they met the requirements. It was more than enough to bring scholars from across the world together to discuss Grylls's posts.

"..."

Asella, the forum admin who went by Don't Abandon the Hero, could see what was happening too. She stared at the forum, her eyes filled with confusion. A truth that she, as a devout believer and the current Hero, found difficult to accept had been posted there.

'Wh-what is this...?'

The truth about the Undying King, the worst necromancer and tyrant in history.

History recorded that the Undying King's excessive greed had driven him to turn every citizen of his kingdom into undead. To stop him, the previous Hero and the Hero's mage partner, Kadir, had personally stepped forward to thwart his ambitions. In the process, the Hero had made a valiant sacrifice, and Kadir had defeated the Undying King.

... That was the "history" known to the world.

'Th-that's impossible! The Holy Kingdom would never...!'

The contents of Grylls's posts were so vile they could almost have been a conspiracy theory. Grylls himself had merely posted them to get his venerable predecessor's records deciphered, but the repercussions were more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

A truth that could never be exposed to the world. The dark underside of the god-worshipping Holy Kingdom.

Only the opening sections had been deciphered, but they could be summarized as follows: a group dedicated to defeating the Demon King had instead created one.

There was no justice to be found in this truth, and it shook Asella deeply.

'Y-yes. It must be a lie. If this had really happened, the goddess would never have forgiven them.'

The Holy Kingdom was a nation that worshipped the gods. Such a nation couldn't possibly have created a Demon King. Asella rationalized it to herself and calmed her pounding heart. For now, her priority was to settle the forum, which had gone beyond an uproar and was on the verge of boiling over.

'Should I... delete Grylls's posts?'

The forum's third rule:

Posts that create tension between nations are prohibited.

Grylls's posts were a clear violation of that rule. The ban on cronyism only applied to real-world connections, so that wasn't an issue.

'But Grylls himself posted them without any such intention...'

She couldn't help agonizing over it. Above all, there was a greater problem: if she deleted Grylls's posts, people would only become more convinced. It might be better to leave them alone. Asella had her foolish moments, but she was by no means stupid.

'I'd better not delete these posts for now.'

They had most likely already spread far and wide. She had been physically occupied until just now, with no chance to check the forum.

'If the Holy Kingdom really did this...'

Asella shook her head vigorously from side to side, trying to dispel the thoughts creeping into her mind.

The real world was still quiet. Even if it became a controversy, all the Holy Kingdom had to do was deny it.

'This chaos might stay confined to the forum.'

Problems that erupted on the forum rarely spilled over into the real world. It was a tempest in a teacup. Of course, solid evidence would change things. The books Grylls had found, for instance—if they were to pass into someone else's hands.

'Even then, they'd need an exceptionally strong reputation to make it stick.'

There was plenty of time. Asella decided to wait for the Holy Kingdom's response. She desperately hoped none of this was true, but...

'The goddess hasn't said a word about it, so it must be false.'

Given her own current circumstances, dark emotions kept creeping into her heart.

'It has to be.'

* * *

While the forum was in uproar...

"Ah. That was a good nap."

Grylls awoke from a blissful afternoon nap. The first thing he did was browse the forum to see whether anything had been deciphered. When he saw the chaos unfolding there, he felt only one thing.

"Looks like they haven't deciphered the part I want yet."

Disappointment.