The next morning, the rain had finally stopped, leaving the sky a brilliant, clear blue. The Polentia family immediately began relief efforts for the territory’s residents who had lost their homes in the torrential downpour.
"Over here! Over here!"
"Set the pillar down right there!"
Since the flooded areas needed time to dry out, their first priority was constructing new homes for the families whose houses had been completely destroyed.
The rhythmic thud of hammers and the sharp rasp of handsaws echoed through the air.
Simon sat in the center of the construction site, his eyes closed as he focused entirely on his dark aura. Around him, skeletons moved busily, unloading materials and stacking heavy logs.
’UGH.’
Simon’s face was already drenched in sweat.
It was far from easy. One skeleton smashed its own wrist with a hammer, while another dislocated its shoulder carrying a log, sending the timber tumbling down a nearby cliff. Even worse, while transporting tools using his Bone Armor, Simon accidentally spilled them, nearly bludgeoning the passing residents.
It had looked so effortless when his father, Richard, did it. But repurposing combat-oriented skeletons for manual labor was proving to be a nightmare.
’I guess this is to be expected.’
Simon’s skeletons were all monsters; they had absolutely no concept of architecture. Unlike in battle, where he could simply issue a broad telepathic command to attack, building required Simon to manually dictate every single micro-movement from start to finish.
Drawn by the steady, rhythmic thud of a hammer, Simon briefly glanced to his side.
While Simon was floundering, the summons under Richard’s control moved with dazzling precision. Skeletons leaped across the scaffolding like martial arts masters, swiftly hauling materials, while Bone Armors glided smoothly through the air, delivering tools with flawless timing.
Every motion was refined. They measured lengths with rulers, hoisted and secured timber, positioned nails, and drove them home in perfect unison. Everything clicked together like the gears of a well-oiled machine.
A low hum of dark magic vibrated through the air. A magic-type undead draped in rags—Richard’s lich—was casting spells. With each incantation, fully constructed roofs levitated into the air and settled perfectly atop the newly built frames. Richard was deploying the exact right undead for every specific task.
’I still have a long way to go.’
This was no time to get cocky just because he attended Kizen. Just as Simon rolled up his sleeves to refocus his control...
[Kid! Are you taking your eyes off a magnificent lich like me to ogle another lich?]
Herseva, who had been doing midair somersaults out of sheer boredom, suddenly chimed in. Simon opened his closed eye.
"Herseva, it’s dangerous for you to wander around too much," he muttered.
She exuded the overwhelming, jet-black aura of a Legion Commander. Since Richard and Simon were the only necromancers in Leshill, he doubted there would be any major issues, but it never hurt to be cautious around the townsfolk.
[Building houses is my specialty! Remember how I built that dazzling city in the world of sand?]
"Alright, then help me out a little."
[Great!]
Herseva tapped the tip of her staff—which was, in fact, her own head—against the ground, transmuting a small patch of earth into shimmering gold. After pulling a mummy from within the golden circle, she shot out thick bandages to ensnare several heavy logs.
It seemed she was trying to hoist the logs up to the third floor of the building to serve as support pillars.
However, her aim was disastrously off.
The logs swung wildly, smashing directly into the existing framework with a deafening crash. The supports buckled, and the newly secured house came tumbling down in a cloud of dust and splintered wood.
The residents working nearby dropped their tools, staring in dumbfounded shock.
’Herseva!’
Simon’s face flushed crimson. Panicking, Herseva flailed her arms, unsure of what to do, before quickly casting a spell on the ground.
[Ta-da!]
Using the loose dirt, she conjured a three-story sandcastle in place of the ruined home and then hastily fled the scene. Sighing heavily, Simon stood up.
"That was my mistake," he said, bowing his head. "I am so sorry."
"Hahaha! It is quite alright, Young Master."
"These things happen."
Right on cue, Herseva’s sandcastle crumbled into a sad pile of dirt. As the son of the Lord, Simon was completely losing face.
"Everyone! Let’s eat before we continue! Food is ready!" a woman in an apron shouted, her voice booming across the site.
As if they had been waiting for this exact moment, the residents dropped their tools and flocked toward the voice.
Desperately needing a change of pace, Simon followed the crowd.
’Oh.’
Given the poor conditions, he hadn’t expected much, but the setup looked like a proper outdoor restaurant. Chairs and tables were neatly arranged, and massive, steaming pots sat at the front.
"Please form a line over there!"
Among the people serving food, Simon spotted a familiar face. It was a girl with her hood pulled up, slightly concealing the pure white hair that stood out glaringly in the Dark Alliance.
"Try Ms. Anna’s special lamb stew! Two pieces of bread per person!"
’Lethe.’
She scooped a generous ladle of stew for a resident and smiled sweetly. "Enjoy your meal!"
The resident gave a dazed nod, completely charmed, and walked past.
Simon approached her station.
"Did you come to help?" he asked.
"Ah. You are here," she replied nonchalantly without even looking back, haughtily brushing a stray lock of hair aside.
"I had nothing to do at the house, so I came to volunteer. You are feeding and housing me, so I ought to earn my keep... Ah, welcome!"
Her tone flipped instantly as she flashed a warm smile at the next resident in line. Simon stepped up beside her and prepared to portion out the jam for the bread.
"You should rest," Lethe noted, glancing at him. "You have been working."
"I was just sitting down and directing my summons, so I’m fine."
The two of them worked in perfect sync. With a long line of hungry people waiting, there was no time to rest.
"Hello, kids. Eat up."
Bending down to eye level, Lethe served the little ones and gave them a gentle wave. The children waved their stubby hands back as they toddled away.
"Are they not absolutely adorable?" Lethe murmured. "Even tiny children like them lining up patiently for their food."
"Yeah, they are," Simon agreed.
He scraped some jam from the bottom of the jar, keeping his voice low. "Thank you for being so kind to our people."
"There is no reason for me to be unkind." Lethe shrugged. "Whether it is here or in the Federation, what sin could the common people have when they are merely struggling to survive day by day? It is only you necromancers who are evil, blinding and deafening the masses so they cannot hear the words of the Great One."
’Haha, her hatred for necromancers is still going strong.’
Still, this was significant progress.
Lethe carried the deep trauma of having her parents murdered by necromancers, and even worse, witnessing them rise as undead.
The fact that her rigid mindset was softening at all brought Simon a profound sense of relief.
Soon, Anna finished the cooking and joined the serving station. With so many people still waiting, they split the line into two to speed things up.
"Anna, you’ve worked hard. Take a break."
Richard approached with his sleeves rolled up, having just returned from the construction site. Anna smiled warmly.
"Why don’t you rest a bit more yourself, Richard?"
"I can only rest when my wife rests," he replied smoothly.
Watching the two of them flirt from down the line, Lethe pouted, her expression turning sullen.
Lethe sighed.
"What’s wrong?" Simon asked.
"It would be rude for you to hear, so I will hold my tongue."
"No, no. You can say it."
Lethe’s eyes sharpened with genuine indignation. "How did our Ms. Anna ever end up marrying an evil necromancer?"
"Huh?"
"To seduce someone as faithful, beautiful, great, kind, and good as Ms. Anna... he must have used some wicked trickery!"
Smiling, Simon pointed toward his parents. "Do you really think it was wicked trickery?"
Richard tapped a spot of stew that had splashed onto his cheek, and Anna smiled shyly before leaning in to kiss it away. Soon, without either of them saying a word, they set their ladles aside, touched their foreheads together, and embraced.
Cheerful whistles rang out from the nearby residents. The adults chuckled, playfully covering their children’s eyes.
Everyone reacted as if this public display of affection was a daily occurrence.
Lethe groaned, turning her head away in disgust.
She still looked completely unconvinced.
"How did the two of you first meet?"
Lethe blurted out the question that evening, just as dinner was coming to an end.
Richard and Anna froze mid-bite.
’Suddenly?’
Simon, who was gathering the empty plates, paused and glanced over.
’Though I’ve actually been a little curious about that myself.’
He had asked a few times when he was very young, but they had always given vague, evasive answers, so he didn’t remember the details. And once he grew older, he felt too embarrassed to bring it up.
Hearing Lethe’s question, Richard and Anna exchanged a loaded glance.
"It’s a bit complicated to explain," Anna began softly. "There were so many incidents and accidents back then."
"We were in the middle of a war," Richard added, taking a slow sip of his wine.
Lethe jumped up from her seat, her face suddenly flushed with excitement. "A wartime romance?!"
"Keep your voice down, Lethe," Anna hushed her, looking around as if embarrassed someone might overhear them in their own home.
Richard chuckled, a little buzzed from the wine. "Yes, the prime of the Miracle Saintess and Yona of the 7th Legion. It was a far cry from the era of peace we enjoy now."
He closed his eyes, lost in the memory.
"Ash rained from the sky, and the air was thick with suffocating black smoke. Everywhere you went, corpses were piled high like mountains, and the rivers ran red with blood. When I think of the peace we have today, it truly is..."
Lethe had begged for a romance story, but it had suddenly devolved into a "back in my day" lecture about how good the youth had it now.
Looking thoroughly sullen, she picked up her plate and retreated to the kitchen with Anna, leaving Simon as the only one at the table to endure his tipsy father’s grim tales of war.
However.
’Now that I’m listening, this is actually pretty interesting.’
Richard had never told Simon stories about his time as a Legion Commander, so Simon found himself thoroughly sucked in.
"Ms. Anna! Ms. Anna! Please keep telling the story from earlier!"
Meanwhile, a similar scene was unfolding in the master bedroom. Lethe, having changed into her pajamas, lay on the bed next to Anna, relentlessly pestering her. Anna bashfully tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Alright, calm down. Well... he and I first met as enemies. We were fighting on opposite sides, but we didn’t know each other’s faces. I was wearing my Saintess robes, so my face was covered by a veil, and he was wearing his skull helmet. We led our respective armies and clashed on the battlefield."
"Then, I ended up meeting your mother in Rohiber Village, in the neutral zone," Richard explained downstairs. "I used to stop by occasionally on business, and since it was far from the front lines, I let my guard down."
"At the time, I was feeling exhausted from the long war and the heavy burden of being a Saintess," Anna whispered upstairs. "So I slipped out of the barracks alone and stopped by a village in the neutral zone."
"Around that time, your mother had gotten caught up in a scam," Richard chuckled. "I went over, chased the scoundrels away, and decided to escort her to her destination. That was the start of it all."
"His tone was blunt and rough, but after exchanging a few words, I realized he was actually a good person," Anna smiled warmly. "And then..."
As the parallel stories progressed, Simon and Lethe became increasingly immersed.
"So who asked who out first?" the two teenagers asked at the exact same time in their respective rooms.
Downstairs, Richard grinned. "Naturally, I was the one who confessed, but your mother was the one who seduced—"
"Richard!"
Anna, who had clearly heard him from the master bedroom, leaped up with a bright red face. Downstairs, Richard flinched, pressing his back against his chair.
"If you’re going to spout nonsense, go to sleep!" she yelled down the stairs. "I remember exactly what you said and what you did to me, so how dare you?!"
"R-Right," Richard stammered.
"Alright, that’s enough of the story!" Anna announced, clapping her hands together to hide her embarrassment. "Let’s all go to sleep now. It’s too late."
Simon and Lethe looked as if their worlds had just collapsed.
"Y-You are telling us to sleep after making us this curious?" Lethe protested.
"Lethe," Anna warned gently.
"A-Alright."
Lethe quickly pulled the covers up over her head. Anna called down the stairs, "You should head up to your room too, Simon."
"Yes, ma’am," he replied.
Swallowing his disappointment, Simon climbed the stairs and headed to his bedroom.
’OOF.’
He changed into his pajamas and collapsed onto his bed.
’Wow, I’m so sleepy.’
The exhaustion of the day’s hard labor finally caught up with him, and he fell asleep in an instant.
Not long after he drifted off, a sudden noise disturbed the silence.
The window rattled violently in its frame, as if a fierce wind was battering the glass outside.
’Did I leave it open?’
Waking up, Simon rubbed his groggy eyes and peered into the darkness.
With a sudden gust, the window burst open. Brilliant moonlight poured into the room, temporarily blinding him.
Simon grunted, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment before blinking them open again.
He saw a flash of silver hair fluttering in the wind, shimmering as though it had been painted with liquid moonlight. A moment later, a small girl landed lightly at the foot of his bed and threw her hands up in the air.
"Hiya! Simon!"
Simon’s eyes went wide at the sight of the familiar figure.
"L-Lady Nephthys?!"
His mind went completely blank.
Why was she here?
"It’s been a while, Simon! Surprised? Are you surprised?"
Watching Nephthys spin happily in circles on his floor, Simon felt a cold bead of sweat roll down his spine.
’I’m in big trouble.’
Lethe, a devout follower of the Holy Federation, was sleeping just downstairs with Anna.

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