WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈
Chapter 65: I Keep Telling You, I'm Not Your Master?
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The one who had easily killed two Heroes and even blown up the Great Sage with a single strike.
For Charlotte, serving as the Boss's closest attendant had been the greatest honor.
Yet seeing the Boss lying helplessly on the ground was so unfamiliar that she could barely believe her eyes.
Her eyes widened in shock as they shifted between the Boss and Cecilia.
Neither sight made any sense.
“It’s, it’s all because of me. Master couldn't... couldn't bring himself to kill me....”
The more Charlotte listened to Cecilia's fading voice, the more confused she became.
...The Boss had deliberately chosen not to resist.
And Cecilia had called the Boss Master.
Could Cecilia really have been the Boss's disciple in life...?
No. That wasn't what mattered right now.
The Boss was dying.
Charlotte glared at Cecilia with reddened eyes.
She wanted to tear Cecilia limb from limb that instant, but the Boss's safety came first.
Charlotte dropped to her knees beside the Boss and looked down.
The Boss's eye-light was dim. For the undead, life and death depended on whether that light remained.
The dawn in an undead's eyes was their remaining life.
The Boss's eye-light was gradually fading.
Charlotte bit her lip, desperately holding back the grief welling up inside her.
“If the Boss dies, you will die by my hand.”
“I will. Just please save my Master....”
“They could interfere, so kill the entire Extermination Party you brought with you. Take responsibility for what you've done.”
“Yes, I will. Please... please save Master.”
The moment their conversation ended, Cecilia leaped into the battlefield.
Her murderous gaze picked out the Extermination Party members.
The vengeance in her heart hadn't faded. Its target had simply changed.
Humanity had made her kill her Master with her own hands.
In a single dash, Cecilia closed in behind Hero Leon.
Swish─
Moonlight flashed like lightning. A thin silver line appeared across Leon's neck.
Spurt!
Blood sprayed as Leon's head fell and rolled across the ground.
In that brief instant, Cecilia found Hero Astin.
Her figure vanished once more, silver light trailing behind her.
Slice!
“─!”
Astin's head was severed before they could let out a final scream.
Two strikes. Two lunges.
That was all it took to kill two Heroes.
They were old and weary, and she had ambushed them, but even so, two Heroes had died in an instant.
“Run! Cecilia is our enemy!”
“Sir Leon! Sir Astin...!”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Those who noticed Cecilia's chest screamed.
Even then, Cecilia rushed through them, unleashing one sword strike after another.
Moonlight danced through the darkness as crimson blood sprayed into the air.
It no longer cut down the Minions of the Night. Instead, it mercilessly carved through the humans.
* * *
Charlotte glanced in that direction, then immediately looked away.
She couldn't afford to be distracted.
Right now, every bit of her attention had to be on the Boss.
“...What should I do?”
Cecilia had entrusted the Boss to Charlotte, relying solely on Necromancy.
But not even a necromancer could revive every undead.
Undead who had not formed a Soul Binding were excluded.
‘Soul Binding.’
A relationship between lord and vassal forged through the soul. Perhaps an even more absolute relationship between master and servant.
The caster held unquestionable control over their minions.
And if the caster died, their minions would disappear as well.
It was impossible, and should never be possible, for Charlotte to command the Boss as one of her subordinates.
But if the caster willingly chose to become the other's servant...
Reversing the relationship between caster and minion was difficult, but not impossible.
Charlotte had seen the method in the Necronomicon and remembered reading over it whenever she had the chance.
One day, she had hoped to swear her soul to the Boss.
Even as she hesitated, the Boss's eye-light continued to fade.
Charlotte immediately smeared a handful of blood flowing from her head across her palm.
Charlotte's blood-soaked hand covered the Boss's hand.
A binding forged through a Blood Oath and a Spirit Oath.
Though it was her first attempt, Charlotte recited the oath without hesitation.
“O most exalted Lord. Please allow this lowly servant to use a shadow darker than Your night as a veil. If You do, I shall offer the spirit and flesh of this lowly servant. Even if my bare bones are buried beneath the sand, if You call, I shall answer.”
Her brows trembled above her tightly shut eyes.
Without realizing it, she tightened her grip on the Boss's hand.
“I humbly beg You, become my master.”
Black mana, dark enough to seem tangible, rose around Charlotte.
A Soul Binding that offered the caster's body and soul as a living sacrifice.
If mana alone wasn't enough, it could revive the Boss even at the cost of the caster's flesh and soul.
Still, as long as the Boss's eye-light had not completely gone out, black mana alone should be enough.
Charlotte drew up the black mana within her body as she looked into the Boss's dim eye-light.
A great inky current that engulfed her surroundings wrapped around the Boss's entire body.
Charlotte offered a prayer that wasn't quite a prayer.
It was an instinctive prayer for the Boss to live. But because the Boss was undead, it became a plea that imitated prayer.
With her eyes tightly shut, Charlotte focused solely on controlling the black mana.
Until now, she had been unable to help the Boss at all as the Boss's adjutant.
If she let the Boss go like this, the emptiness would be so unbearable that she felt she would go mad.
If the Boss died, Charlotte would kill Cecilia no matter what.
She had firmly resolved to kill Cecilia even if the Boss was revived.
When Charlotte finally opened her eyes, blue light had returned to the Death Knight's eyes.
“...Ah.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Charlotte could only move her lips soundlessly.
* * *
......What?
The moment I opened my eyes, Charlotte's tearful face filled my vision.
The angle was way too intense, so I instinctively looked away.
Then I felt something trembling in my hand.
I wondered what it was, only to realize that Charlotte had her hand over mine.
Perhaps she noticed my gaze, because Charlotte quickly withdrew her hand.
“Thank goodness, thank goodness....”
She was stammering, which was unlike Charlotte.
I gave her a strange look, then looked around.
The distant flashes of silver light brought back my memories from before I lost consciousness.
Cecilia had definitely stabbed me, and I had been dying.
I didn't know exactly what happened afterward, but it looked like Charlotte's help had brought me back from the brink of death.
‘If it hadn't been for Double Dragon Scale, I would've died.’
I hadn’t lost consciousness. I had been drifting farther and farther away.
Without Double Dragon Scale, I would've died from the Moonlight Sword's strike.
Either way, that must have been why Necromancer Charlotte had managed to revive me somehow, though I had no idea how.
Once I had gathered myself, I kept looking around until my eyes settled on Cecilia.
Unbelievably, she was killing fellow humans.
‘...Is something wrong with my eyes?’
Nothing about this situation fit together.
Cecilia had tried to kill me, then suddenly started massacring her own side...
The question vanished the moment I saw Isabella. Urgent resolve filled my mind.
Before I could consciously process it, I was gripping the Holy Sword and heading toward her.
“My Lord─”
Charlotte called from behind me, but I had no time to listen.
[Lv. 88]
Thankfully, Isabella had somehow survived.
She was on the verge of death, but I had a way to save her.
Vampires might be Minions of the Night, but they weren't undead.
That meant the Holy Sword's healing power could affect them.
At my will, the Holy Sword's scarlet glow turned pure white.
When I held Healing Solari against Isabella, her deep wounds rapidly closed.
Isabella's twisted expression quickly softened.
She was unconscious from the aftereffects, but at least she was alive.
“Kirik....”
I turned toward Balutak, who had fallen some distance away in a pool of deep green blood.
Balutak's upper and lower halves had been separated, yet Balutak struggled to lift their head.
The ant's antennae trembled weakly.
Balutak's vitality was as tenacious as a cockroach's.
I had been sick of that setting in the game, but right now, it was a huge relief.
I pressed Balutak's upper and lower halves together, then held the Holy Sword against them.
Not only did the wounds close cleanly, but the severed ends began sealing together with light.
Before long, Balutak sprang to their feet with a completely healthy body.
“Kirik! Great Chieftain saved Balutak again! Balutak will be loyal to Great Chieftain!”
Isabella couldn't regain consciousness from the aftereffects, while Balutak was far too healthy. It was hard to believe Balutak had just come back from the dead.
Balutak's level might have been relatively low, but their vitality was tougher than anyone else's.
I let out a frosty sigh of relief.
“Great Chieftain, save that lunatic too!”
“...By lunatic, you mean?”
“That lunatic! Kirik!”
Balutak pointed at Carleon.
Come to think of it, Balutak really didn't know much of anything.
Using the Holy Sword's healing power on an undead like Carleon would be like rubbing salt into Carleon's wounds.
As long as we recovered Carleon's body, Rose Sha would find some way to revive him.
The damage wasn't that severe either, so I wasn't too worried.
“Balutak. Look after Isabella.”
“Kirik! Got it!”
Balutak flapped their wings and flew over to Isabella.
“Boss.”
Charlotte had come up beside me before I noticed.
She called to me, but her gaze was fixed on Cecilia in the distance.
That was when Cecilia, who had been slaughtering the humans, suddenly stopped.
For some reason, she stopped the moment our eyes met.
“Gyaaaah!”
Taking advantage of the opening, the remaining members of the Extermination Party scattered and fled.
Cecilia walked in the opposite direction as though they didn't matter to her.
That direction led to me.
The Minions of the Night couldn't even move from where they stood.
As Cecilia passed them, they could only swallow their fear.
Covered from head to toe in blood, Cecilia strode toward me.
Only Charlotte remained wary of Cecilia, holding an inky magic circle in the air.
I kept my eyes on Cecilia's Moonlight Sword. At the same time, I was about to step back.
But when my gaze fixed on the space above her head, I stopped moving without realizing it.
[Lv. 93]
It was a color nowhere close to red, the darkest pink imaginable.
For a moment, I thought it was Charlotte's level, but when I looked again, it undeniably belonged to Cecilia.
‘...Why?’
I wasn't standing there because I felt relieved. I was too stunned to do anything.
As I stood there blankly, Cecilia reached me.
Before I could react, she threw herself at me as though collapsing.
Even as I found myself holding Cecilia, I couldn't tell whether this was real.
“Master....”
Her body trembled as she spoke in a quiet voice.
She had gone completely limp, clearly relying on me.
Wait, what did she just call me?
“...Master?”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Cecilia cautiously looked up at me.
Her eyes quickly filled with tears.
“I-I’m sorry.... If I were you, I would've... done the same thing.”
“...?”
“A disciple who tried to kill her Master.... I understand how you feel, Master.”
What was she even talking about?
“But, Master, can't you forgive me? I finally got to meet you, and if you suddenly push me away, then I....”
No, what was she even saying?
I keep telling you, I'm not your master?
Footnotes:
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