?Well, either way we have to take care of the prisoners before we can try taking out a bandit group as sizeable as the one led by this Morrell guy.”

  Valeria listened to the Aroon’s confession, and drawn her conclusions. Abram wanted to know a little more.

  “What do you plan on doing with them?”

  “Franz the Corpse Pimp is your responsibility. Go turn him in, and try bringing back someone to treat Flora here.”

  Valeria decided that having a necromancer on their side would be immensely helpful, as they seemed to have a great impact on morale of whoever was supposed to fight against them. Aroon’s reaction to Flora was proof enough of it.

  ‘When fighting criminals, crushing their spirits is the most important. They aren’t a well disciplined military, but a bunch of ruffians, after all. They will break the moment they are scared.’

  “Alright, leave it to me. I’ll leave tomorrow.” Abram nodded. “But I will need assistance if I am to turn in both the Corpse Pimp, and the bandit.”

  “It’s alright, You won’t need to do that. Aroon stays here.”

  “What do you plan to do with him?”

  “Simple. We will hide him in a place where no one will ever find him, but us. Then, if his information turns out to be false and we die at the hands of his friends, he will die a gruesome death. An insurance, if you will.”

  The bandit in question seemed to welcome the news with an understandable lack of enthusiasm, but was unable to move an inch, or utter a word of protest. Not that he was ever tortured, he was simply exhausted mentally.

  “That’s a bit cruel.” Flora interjected, but her tone betrayed lack of interest.

  “It might be, but it’s not like he was any less brutal, isn’t that right?” Valeria confirmed. “I am against cruel or unusual punishment, but I think that punishment only counts as cruel, if it’s more cruel than the crime.”

  “Then again, do we have any right to punish other people?” It seemed Abram was still not used to her ways and methods.

  “Alright. But who does, if not the intended victim?”

  “I don’t know, a judge appointed by a noble household? A royal judge? King himself?”

  “Which one of those gives a damn?”

  “A judge appointed by a noble household should.” Abram defended the judicial system of his country.

  “Then why isn’t this man in prison already? Or a mine, digging ore for the rest of his life?”

  “Because he was never caught.”

  “Why isn’t the country hunting that Morrell and is group then?”

  “Because the Hermans have their hands full with monsters. They can’t spare the manpower.”

  “Isn’t this perfect, then? We’ll save the country the trouble of both hunting bandits, and judging them. And It’s not like we have any other choice. Let’s be real. It’s not that they lack manpower, it’s that someone takes bribes. If we hand over this man to bribed officials, the bandits will soon know all about us.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “Trust me, child. I know all about those things. You’ve seen one corrupt government, you’ve seen them all.”

  Abram opened and closed his mouth.

  “Alright. I admit, this is a real possibility. We’ll do as you say.”

  “Hey, then what about the cores? How many do we sell to the Hermann’s, how many in other places, and how many can we leave for our own use?”

  Flora, the necrotic mage, and Valeria’s future helper, was obviously worried about material goods and the tools of her trade, and did not give a shit about some morality of punishment, or government corruption.

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  “I don’t know. how many will you need?”

  “The more the merrier, why?”

  “Because we need to sacrifice a lot of them in order for you to be able to use the rest.” Abram interjected. “Sure, I’d love to give those bastards as few as possible, but if we hand over to little, then it’ll be for nothing. What do you think, Lady Valeria?”

  “I think you should discuss it between yourselves. I have no use for cores in the first place, other than as currency. That being said, am I correct to assume you can make more powerful dolls by using bigger cores of stronger beasts?”

  Flora breathed in, and prepared to talk about her favorite subject.

  “Yes, of course. That, and the quality of the body are the most important, besides the skills of the mage, of course.”

  “Quality of the body?”

  “Generally, the better its condition, the more useful it will be. Other than that, corpses of powerful beasts require bigger cores to function.”

  “Makes sense.”

  Valeria sipped her tea, and thought back to the core of an undead Wyvern she kept in her bag.

  “What if you inserted a core of something really strong into a weak animal?”

  “I wouldn’t really describe the process as mere ‘inserting’, but the performance would increase. That being said, it’s not possible to do it indefinitely. Too weak of a corpse, and the entire thing will just fall apart. Too strong of a corpse, and you won’t be able to bring up its full potential.”

  “I see. If you were to acquire something like a core of an undead wyvern, what would you do with it?”

  Flora’s face lit up in unhealthy excitement, her smile beautifully emphasizing the dark circles around her eyes.

  “Please continue!”

  “Hypothetically.”

  Flora’s face dropped a bit, but the excitement was still there. This time, however, it looked like the passion of a ner… enthusiast.

  “Normally, the bigger the core, the stronger the servant. But once he cores get this big, one can start treading upon territory of real necromancy. It’s why I don’t call myself a necromancer. But If I had a wyvern’s core… I could start.”

  “Start what, exactly?”

  “Raising the dead, obviously. The real thing.”

  “You mean lie resurrection?” Valeria’s voice was full of doubts.

  “Of course not, that’s impossible. I mean making corpses move with no physical contact at all, and without even touching them.”

  The older woman’s eyes lit up.

  “You mean you could make your undead kill the opponents, and then raise their corpses to kill even more?”

  “Precisely that. But in order to do that, I’d have to make a staff.”

  “And I’m guessing a core of an undead wyvern is one of the parts you need to build it?”

  “Not specifically the wyvern’s. Any core of that class can be used, and at the same time it’s the only ingredient I don’t have yet.”

  “What about the morality of it? I remember Abram being strongly against using necrotic magic on human corpses?”

  “More than the morality of using necrotic magic, I’m against fiddling with human corpses, and making them into permanent servants. It’s kind of like the difference between hiding behind a dead body, and making furniture with human skin and bones.”

  “You mean how one is acceptable when it is necessary to stay alive, and the other is a crime and an atrocity?”

  “Precisely that! If I have a proper medium, such as a staff, I could raise the corpses without breaking taboos.” Flora was visibly excited. “And I even have an idea on how to make the innate limits of true necromancy no longer apply!”

  “Hush, child. If you truly have some game breaking ideas in your sleeves, do not reveal them where they can be heard by people we intend to hand over to the authorities.”

  “Oh. Oh, sorry. I forgot this stain on the reputation of all decay mages was still here.”

  Indeed, Franz the corpse pimp was doing everything to not get noticed by his captors. Especially Valeria, which might have been caused by the excessive violence she made him endure. Still, the woman herself didn’t consider herself wrong.

  ‘Shouldn’t’ve attacked me.’

  Valeria considered the tactical advantages of literally making her enemies fight against their fallen comrades, and smiled.

  ‘This might be a bit evil, but living should take the priority over empty shells of the dead. Let’s cover my nose, and do it.’

  “Alright. Abram? We will now proceed upstairs, where you will straighten out my bones again. But don’t exert yourself, as you’ll be setting out tomorrow morning. I will stay here with Flora, and prepare. We must strike the bandits before they figure out that we know where they are, and what their current grand plan is. So do try returning fast.”

  “About payment…?” Flora reminded.

  “Here” Valeria tossed her a dark orb the size of a small fist.

  Flora’s jaw hung open.

  “Isn’t something like that too much…?!”

  “Definitely not. But if you feel it is, show me what you can do with it.”

  In this very moment, Flora no longer hesitated to let the older woman borrow her husband. Oh, definitely not. If anything, she would be probably willing to overlook things much worse than just a simple massage.

  “Killed the beastie, how else? Or maybe I didn’t, since it was technically already dead? ”

  Valeria grabbed a bottle of booze, and gestured to Abram.

  “Come, and fix me.”

  An hour later, a raspy, feminine voice could be heard singing drinking songs, shanties, hymns, and even a war song, although that one was horribly butchered by a drunken woman.

  Once it ended, the house fell into silence.

  Flora was speechless. She looked at the valuable core in her hand, and sighed.

  ‘What the heck… Did she hunt it alone?’

  This was quite unbelievable, but Valeria’s words indicated a solo hunt. Not to mention, The core seemed fresh out of the creature, so it couldn’t be some kind of keepsake from better times.

  “An eighty year old woman killed a wyvern with her physical strength alone... Crazy, even if she was an ex Royal Guard.”

  After a few moments of pondering, Flora decided that maybe prying wasn’t the best idea.