Chapter 5: The Sorrows of Old Laurie

To Xiahou Yan’s surprise, Alice Comstock quickly accepted the fact that she had been resurrected.

The swordswoman even stated that returning from the dead to continue serving the Igor Family was the greatest honor of her life.

However, this did little to ease Xiahou Yan’s inner unease. Forcibly bringing a dead person back to the realm of the living—whether by Earth’s standards or the values of this world—was a dishonorable act that violated human ethics.

This was precisely why Undead Magic was considered a taboo by this world’s Magic Association. According to imperial law, any Mage caught using Undead Magic was to be tied to a stake and burned alive!

Of course, Xiahou Yan had no time to worry about such legalities. After all, if they couldn’t make it out of this zombie-infested infected zone, burning at the stake wouldn’t be much different from being eaten alive by zombies.

He was much more concerned with Alice’s current physical condition. "Alice, how are you feeling right now?" Xiahou Yan asked, carefully examining the resurrected Captain of the Guard.

"Lord Eliot, I feel... weird." Alice pursed her lips and tried rotating her wrist. "I can’t feel my heartbeat or my body heat, but... my body moves freely. It feels even lighter than before I died... Honestly, I feel pretty good."

She looked around, casually grabbed a wooden stick from the corner of the tent, and assumed the starting stance of a sword technique. With a crisp "HA!", she thrust the stick forward as if it were a Longsword.

To Xiahou Yan, her fluid movements and valiant posture had absolutely nothing to do with the word "zombie."

"Strange..." Alice pulled back the stick and tucked it into her belt like a Short Sword, looking thoughtful. "Lord Eliot, I feel like there’s even more power behind my movements than before."

Xiahou Yan frowned. According to the records in Essentials of Necromancy, a resurrected zombie’s strength would indeed be enhanced compared to when they were alive. He wondered what kind of existence Alice Comstock was right now. A living person? A dead person? A zombie? The living dead?

But at least the outcome was positive. Xiahou Yan could only console himself with the thought that for a migrating convoy trapped deep within an infected zone, having their peak Martial Force return from the dead was a good thing no matter what.

Seeing Xiahou Yan pinching his chin in deep thought, Alice hesitated for a moment before walking over to him. "Lord Eliot."

"Captain Alice." Xiahou Yan looked up at the swordswoman he had resurrected, feeling a mix of guilt and a guilty conscience.

"You don’t need to worry about me," Alice said with a smile. "I’ve already told you—to me, as long as I can continue using my blade to protect you, that’s enough! As for whether I’m dead or alive, or whether I have a heartbeat and body heat, none of that matters."

The swordswoman was tall, roughly the same height as Eliot Igor. Looking straight into Alice’s eyes, Xiahou Yan gritted his teeth.

"Alice, trust me," he said in a deep voice. "I swear on my honor as a noble that if we can escape this infected zone, I will do everything in my power to return your heartbeat and body heat, so you can truly be resurrected!"

Alice shook her head, looking tenderly at Xiahou Yan. Her gaze clearly conveyed, "You don’t need to do all this for me." It seemed as though the swordswoman would have no complaints even if she had to serve the Lord forever in this half-dead state.

But Xiahou Yan still shook his head. "Miss Alice, I said something to your corpse just now. I said, ’As a Lord, I must take responsibility for my people!’"

He bent down, picked up the Lion Lantern from the ground, and looked directly into her eyes as he spoke sternly. "And you, Alice Comstock, are also one of my people!"

Alice burst into laughter. She tilted her head, her eyes suddenly lighting up with curiosity. "Lord Eliot, regarding the effects of your Resurrection Technique and my current state... why don’t you go ask Master Laurie? After all, he’s the only certified Mage in our convoy!"

Xiahou Yan found the word "certified" in Alice’s remark a bit grating. As everyone knew, because Eliot Igor had to rush back to inherit the family estate, he failed to graduate from the Mage Academy. He would probably never obtain an official Mage license in his lifetime.

"Master Laurie?" Xiahou Yan brushed away those distracting thoughts and said hesitantly. "Is that appropriate? Aren’t Mages like him strongly opposed to things like Forbidden Magic and Undead Magic?"

Alice blinked playfully. "Do you know why Master Laurie originally came to Eagle’s Rest Castle to be the Chief Mage?"

"Why?" Xiahou Yan felt like he had already guessed the answer.

"I heard it from your mother. Master Laurie was expelled from Academy City by the Magic Association for practicing Forbidden Magic!" Alice replied. "He had nowhere to go and no one to take him in. It was then that the kind Lord Vincent—your father—hired him for life at a salary of one Gold Coin per month, making him the Chief Mage of the Igor Family from then on!"

Xiahou Yan was left speechless. A Chief Mage who practiced Forbidden Magic, and a youngest son who dabbled in Undead Magic... Did the Igor Family have some kind of bloodline trait that attracted Forbidden Magic?

"Then let’s go ask Master Laurie," Xiahou Yan agreed after a moment of thought. "Let’s see what the professional has to say!"

The Chief Mage of the Igor Family, an Elder Mage nearing eighty years old named Victor Laurie, had been in a terrible mood lately. This was actually quite normal. Trapped in the center of an infected zone with five hundred other people and surrounded by countless zombies, no one could possibly be in high spirits.

But the source of Master Laurie’s frustration was destined to be different from everyone else’s.

Near the center of the camp, several tenant farmers were sitting around a bonfire, roasting apples while discussing the thrilling events of today’s zombie horde encounter, when they suddenly heard a CLANG AND CLATTER behind them.

When the farmers turned around, they found Master Laurie with his rear sticking up in the air and his head buried in a pile of cargo crates, looking exactly like a malnourished, overly scrawny old ostrich.

"Master Laurie!" one of the farmers called out loudly. "What are you doing?"

"I’m looking for something!" Master Laurie pulled his head out of the cargo pile, his long, sparse white beard trembling with anxiety. "I lost something! I hid it in one of these crates!"

"The only remaining cargo crates are all here," the farmer said, shrugging. "The zombie horde came so fast that we had to abandon a lot of our goods. If it’s not here, then it was lost during the attack and can’t be found."

Master Laurie’s old face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Wait a minute, Master Laurie!" another farmer suddenly noticed a discrepancy. "Why would you hide your personal belongings in the Lord’s cargo crates?"

"Uh... I have something to do, we’ll talk later!" Master Laurie avoided the question. He grabbed his dirty old Magic Robe and prepared to slip away, but as soon as he turned around, he unfortunately bumped into an unexpected person.

"Master Laurie, I’ve been looking all over for you!" Xiahou Yan said, crossing his arms and staring fixedly at his Chief Mage. "Why aren’t you staying in your tent? What are you doing here by the bonfire?"

"Uh..." Master Laurie rolled his eyes, but before he could come up with a suitable answer, the farmer behind him snitched loudly. "Lord, Master Laurie is looking for something!"

Xiahou Yan scrutinized Master Laurie suspiciously. "Master, these are all supplies for building our new territory. What are you looking for here?"

Master Laurie scrunched up his heavily wrinkled old face, looking as if he were about to cry. "I’m looking... I’m looking for a book I lost..."

"What book?" Xiahou Yan pressed.

"A novel..."

"A novel?" Xiahou Yan confirmed. "You’re looking for a novel in the territory’s cargo?"

"It’s one I hid in the crates earlier..." Master Laurie fidgeted for a long time before deeply lowering his head. "...Um... an erotic novel..."

The words "erotic novel" struck like a muffled clap of thunder, completely blasting Xiahou Yan and leaving him dumbfounded on the spot. After a long moment, he felt as if something inside his heart had just shattered. He couldn’t help but wonder if seeking advice on Necromancy from this dirty old man was really a good idea.