We had to deal with the monsters that had escaped yesterday while bringing Adil, the statue's caretaker, safely back to Elysium. After hearing that, I told Estelle I wanted to join the group going to bring him back.

"You want to come too, Minjun?" Estelle's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes. The more of us there are, the better, right?"

"But... you must be tired. You don't need to push yourself to help us." Estelle expressed her concern again, pointing out that I'd been drinking all night and couldn't be feeling my best.

"It's fine. I want to help." After yesterday, I felt closer to the people here and wanted to do something for them. I had another reason, too: I wanted to see whether that mysterious aura would appear and envelop me again today. Besides, it was a chance to gain some combat experience. An escort mission and a cleanup of the remaining monsters didn't sound too demanding.

When I wouldn't change my mind, Estelle finally agreed to respect my wishes. "Then... sigh, all right. We'd be grateful to have you along, Minjun. I'll take you to the escort team. Just don't overdo it out there."

"Don't worry." After we finished eating, I followed Estelle to the city wall, where the escort team was waiting.

When we arrived, one of the escorts spotted me and greeted me warmly. "Hello." "Hello! Judging by your clothes, you're the one from another world, aren't you?" "You were incredible yesterday!" I'd only been here a day, but thanks to what had happened yesterday, everyone on the escort team recognized me.

"I've been wanting to thank you for helping us, but I never got the chance. Thank you for yesterday." "It was nothing." "By the way, what brings you here?" asked an elf mage who seemed to be the team's leader. Estelle answered for me.

"Minjun says he'd like to join you on the escort mission." "After all that fighting yesterday, aren't you exhausted?" "Exactly. Minjun, we can handle this mission ourselves. Why not get some rest and take your time looking around the village?" Their reaction was remarkably similar to Estelle's.

"I asked Estelle to let me help. Besides, there's something I need to ask Adil personally. The sooner I do, the better, so I'd like to meet him as soon as possible." The elf mage smiled and nodded at my answer. "In that case, we have no reason to refuse." "Thank you for letting me join you." "Not at all. It looks like we'll be in your debt again. We're leaving soon, so I'd appreciate it if you could get ready quickly."

I took my equipment out of my pocket dimension and put it on. Once everyone was ready, we went beyond the wall to escort Adil home. I hadn't had a reason to go outside yesterday, so this was my first good look at the wall surrounding Elysium. It was enormous and looked sturdy. There was something else, too. Perhaps everyone had been too overwhelmed yesterday, but uncollected monster corpses lined the route to our meeting place.

"Didn't you clear them all away yesterday?" I'd seen a large crew brought in for the cleanup after the battle, so I'd assumed most of it was done. A swordsman walking behind me answered my question. "There was too much to clear in one day, so yesterday we focused on the wyvern corpses. There were a lot of wounded, and so many bodies..."

"That makes sense. Yesterday was the first time I'd ever seen so many monsters in one place, too." It still made me shudder to think about it. I probably wouldn't encounter a horde that large in any gate.

"Once we've dealt with the ones that got away yesterday, we'll probably finish clearing the bodies." "I see." "Oh, and I'm not sure whether anyone's told you, but you'll naturally receive a share of the proceeds from selling the monster corpses, Minjun. There are so many to dispose of that it may take a while, though."

There had been so much going on that I hadn't thought about that. Now I was looking forward to it. Given that I'd outdone myself yesterday, I could probably expect a sizable payout. "That's good news. Now I'm even more motivated. Come to think of it, I never asked anyone's name."

"I'm Araven." Starting with Araven, the escort team's leader, the others introduced themselves briefly, and we exchanged greetings.

"By the way, Araven, how much farther is it to Adil?" "At this pace, a little over an hour, I think," Araven replied after taking a pocket watch from his coat. "I can't wait to meet him." Adil was supposed to know more than anyone about Elysium's history and the statue. I had plenty to ask him.

We talked about this and that as we made our way to the meeting place. At first I didn't notice anything, but after a while, an uneasy feeling crept over me. "... Am I the only one who feels like something's off?" "What do you mean?" "You said the monsters that fled yesterday would be hiding along this route, but we haven't seen a single one alive."

We'd seen plenty of corpses, but strangely, not one living monster on the entire journey. Surely we should have come across at least one by now. "They may have hidden deeper in the forest. Or... it wouldn't be surprising if they'd fled somewhere beyond our sight," said Max, a swordsman beside me.

"That's possible. Once we've escorted Adil back, we'll have to decide whether to investigate further." The others seemed to realize something was strange, but none of them appeared as bothered by it as I was. Walking through a forest as silent as the grave only made it feel more ominous. There were too few monster tracks leading away from Elysium for them all to have escaped the forest.

'Where did all those monsters go?' I couldn't shake the chill that followed me the whole way. Before long, I learned that my foreboding hadn't been misplaced.

"Adil...?" Far ahead stood a lizard beastfolk I took to be Adil, his entire body bound with thick rope. Behind him was a huge man shrouded from head to toe in a black cloak, radiating an ominous presence.

* * *

Adil was a lizard beastfolk, a historian of Elysium and caretaker of Bellium's statue. He had left Elysium for a short time on personal business. But that was only the reason given publicly. Those in the know understood that his trip was for more than a personal errand.

His real purpose was to recover Bellium's Tears, a relic lost several hundred years ago. Recently, he'd received information about where to find it and made plans to retrieve it. Some had argued that he needed an escort to search for such a precious relic, but various problems made it difficult to put a team together when he set out. Fortunately, by the time Adil had obtained the relic and was ready to return, Elysium had the resources to assemble an escort. The elders decided to send one for him, and Adil waited for them to arrive.

But before the escort team could reach him, an unidentified man abducted him. Adil thought the man wanted to steal Bellium's Tears for its value. In truth, he was after something else: Bellium's remains. The man was a necromancer who had long wanted to study and use Bellium's remains to improve his undead army. He had kidnapped Adil to fulfill that ambition.

And now... "Who the hell are you?" Araven demanded coldly. The man snorted. "Can't you see? A kidnapper with a hostage."

"You've got some nerve for a filthy criminal. Why did you kidnap Adil?" The man swept his crazed gaze over Minjun and the escorts, then answered with a sinister smile. "Bellium's remains." "How dare you!" The moment he said it, everyone, Araven included, erupted in curses.

Bellium's remains were no ordinary sacred relic. Everyone in Elysium considered them the city's holiest and most precious treasure. Bellium's Tears, which Adil had recovered, was an artifact beyond price, but even it could not compare to the value they placed on Bellium's remains.

"I could do some worthwhile research with Bellium's bones." "You're a necromancer!" "I'd prefer to get all of Bellium's remains and turn him into an undead, but that seems unlikely. Fine, I'll make a generous concession. Bring me even a single piece of his remains. Otherwise, I can't guarantee the safety of either your sacred relic or this man's life." The necromancer crooked a finger at them arrogantly.

Hearing him speak Bellium's name so disrespectfully infuriated Adil and the other citizens of Elysium. That made it all the more impossible to hand over what he wanted. They had never intended to give in to a shameless kidnapper's demands, but for him to speak Bellium's name with that filthy mouth of his? That was unforgivable.

"Hold on a little longer, Adil. We'll save you." "Mmph! Mmmph!" Adil tried to say something, but the cloth tied over his mouth made his words impossible to understand. "Will you, though?"

With a wave of the man's hand, the ground began to shake, and an undead army emerged from where it had been hidden beneath the earth. "Is that why we didn't see any monsters on the way here...?" "Bingo. I happened to need more troops for my army." In less than a day, he'd single-handedly wiped out every monster that had fled and turned all their corpses into undead. Arrogance aside, he seemed to be an extremely powerful necromancer.

"So that attitude of yours wasn't all bluster. You did have something to back it up." "It's called confidence, not attitude." As much as they hated to admit it, the moment they saw the size of the undead army, everyone had to acknowledge that this necromancer would be a formidable opponent.

"Last chance. If you won't offer me Bellium's remains, I'll turn you into undead and have you point your swords at Elysium's walls." As if to taunt them, the necromancer took out Bellium's Tears, which he had stolen from Adil, and waved it at them. It was as though he were daring them to take it back.

"You think we can't?" Levy, the rabbit beastfolk standing at the front, lost his temper and charged the necromancer. But a sharp fragment of bone flew from an unexpected direction and pierced his chest. "Gah!" With a short cry, Levy collapsed where he stood, bleeding. "L-Levy!" "I didn't even see it... How?" "To think you were so cocky with such meager skills. You don't even have the right to be angry."

The force of his presence filled everyone with a fear so immense it nearly paralyzed them. Everyone except Minjun. 'Strange.' He could feel the necromancer's overwhelming presence too, yet for some reason, confidence that he could win began to well up inside him instead of fear. At the same time, his heart was pounding hard.

'Is the aura blessing me again, like yesterday...?' He turned to look behind him just in case, but the aura he'd seen yesterday was nowhere to be found. 'Then what is this...?'

Before he could find an answer, Minjun's gaze went naturally to Bellium's Tears. As if drawn by instinct, he reached toward it without thinking. Bellium's Tears began to pull away from the necromancer's hand and move toward him. "Wh-what?!" The necromancer's shock lasted only a moment. Regaining his composure, he commanded his undead to seize it. But Bellium's Tears punched effortlessly through the skeletons blocking its path, as though tearing through sheets of paper, and flew toward Minjun as if drawn by a magnet.

And the instant Bellium's Tears touched Minjun's body, it began to sink into him as if by magic. "...!"