Chapter Seventy
“Ghost Lord, speaking of which, it’s really amazing that you can survive.” Denos carried a box of supplies onto the carriage, then got off and slumped into a chair.
"I've said it many times, there's nothing to be proud of here, it's just something I asked the gods for before I transmigrated." Ghost Duke was tidying up the things on top. This guy was surprisingly diligent when it came to this kind of thing. Although he couldn't lift the box, he was still doing what he could, such as arranging the things on it neatly.
Although it's simple, it's still something that needs to be done by someone.
"Don't talk to me about those things, okay?" Denos frowned. This guy doesn't seem to know how to fix his habit of talking incomprehensible. You'd really think he has delusions.
However, anything can happen if you live long enough. Even Ark can be turned into a paralyzed person, let alone a normal guy being driven into delusions. This kind of "living too long and seeing everything" is really not a good thing. Maybe it's really as Ghost Duke said, this place is hell. Those who live in the underworld shouldn't think about how long they want to live. The sooner you die, the sooner you're reborn. Why suffer like this?
Even so, everyone still wanted to survive. Because as long as they lived, they could witness countless beautiful things.
He thought that Lord Denos would continue joking as usual, but he saw that the guy suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.
He suddenly laughed, a laugh that was so ugly.
“Every word I’ve said is the truth.” Ghost Duke said, word by word, “How do you think I should explain to others something that is a fact? I have no physical evidence, I can only say that it is true, I have never lied. I may have lied before, but I’m tired of making up lies.”
Suddenly he sat down, looked at Denos and said, “Then let me put it another way. My name is Gul, and I am a farmer living in a place called Lugoias. One day, I was given the power of a demon by the immortal demon Haras. So I am a demon, and I am immortal because of my power as a demon.”
Denos stared blankly into his eyes. Denos had been looking directly into his eyes as he spoke, each word spoken so calmly and without any pause.
“My name is Ellermo. I used to be a priest. But I discovered a laboratory researching demons in the church's basement, and I was found out. I was killed and abandoned in the basement. By chance, I obtained one of the demonic seals, and that's why I now have this ability.”
He continued, speaking in the same uninterrupted tone and with a genuine look in his eyes.
But before Denos could answer, he laughed again, and seemed to be laughing very happily.
"Which of these two sounds more real?" He slapped his forehead and said, "After I made them up, I hesitated about which one to use. In the end, I made up almost twenty fake identities. Those two were simply not enough. And what happened in the end? When I was making one up with someone, I accidentally said a few wrong details, which led to me coming up with a very strange identity full of mistakes. But guess what? No one suspected anything, and they even expressed doubt about me."
"So, what's your real name?"
"God knows! God made me lose some of my memories after I transmigrated, including the parts related to my name. Has your memory been tampered with?" Ghost Duke took out a notebook from his body and opened one of the pages. It looked like a guy carrying a scythe and wearing a raven mask, draped in a burlap sack. But he was wearing a pair of sneakers (Denos didn't recognize them; they just looked strange to him).
"This is."
"This was my old outfit, for comic conventions," he said casually. "But it didn't look like me at all. I didn't know who I wanted to be, as far as the costume project was concerned. I was confused. I didn't want to be any of those cosplayers. So I dressed like this. I remember it clearly, right? But guess what he cut out?"
As he spoke, he drew a human figure next to him.
It was a guy about his height, dressed in a rather odd outfit (which looked normal to us: a shirt and jeans).
“I remember someone went with me, but I can’t remember who it was at all.” Ghost Duke revealed a fierce expression: “This is how he erased my memories! He deleted all the information that wanted to trick me in this way. I only remember calling myself Ghost Duke on the chat platform, so that’s my name! It’s fake too, but for me, there is no more real name than this.”
After Ghost Duke finished speaking, he looked at Denos's bewildered eyes.
He was indeed very confused, because he couldn't understand it at all. Ghost Lord, likewise, had no intention of making it understand; after all, explaining it clearly would require too much effort. He had tried to explain it to a few people before, and while he succeeded, those guys didn't live long. He hadn't found any way to free himself either.
“I don’t understand,” Denos shook his head.
"Then just think of me as an undead called Ghost Duke. Make good use of this trait of mine; I can serve as a food supply or a meat shield and bait." Ghost Duke said, "There's no need to know about my past; knowing things that are meaningless is just wasting your time."
Denos looked at him for a long time before nodding.
Indeed, that's enough; there's no need to know more.
Ghost Duke propped his head up, feeling he'd talked too much. Talking too much about these things brought back memories he didn't want to recall. The feeling was unbearable; a flood of memories washed over him, making him feel completely overwhelmed.
"Good morning." The meaningless chatter was interrupted by this greeting as Deedri came down from the second floor, yawning as she spoke.
"It's already afternoon," Ghost Duke reminded him. "If you sleep a little longer, you can have all three meals together."
"Enough with the nagging. I'm just a normal monster, don't have too many expectations of me." Deedri walked to the carriage and yawned, saying, "Don't compare me to those things that defy common sense."
She had previously exhausted a huge amount of magic power, leaving her with practically only physical strength. While there were faster ways to restore magic power, nothing felt better than a good night's sleep. So she slept soundly for a whole day. Now she felt refreshed, even though she wasn't fully recovered and still felt a bit dizzy from a hangover.
However, she wasn't saddened by this, only occasionally feeling a little lost. She wanted to lament that even among normal monsters, she was still no match for the chosen ones.
Connie also arrived around the same time. He was dressed in very casual clothes, but was carrying an enormous backpack.
“Oh, Connie’s here to pick me up.” Denos said, looking at the two of them. “There are still some things left to buy, so I asked an acquaintance. He said he would take me to buy them today.”
Then he hesitated for a moment and said, "However, I plan to keep the leather that I was going to sell for my own use. This carriage is made of pure metal, and it would be really unbearable to use without the fur... Connie, isn't the price you gave me for this carriage too low? Such precious things as metal shouldn't be used to make carriages."
"Don't worry, metal is the cheapest thing here... oh no, the metal used for the carriages is allocated to each person according to their quota, so I don't have to pay for it. Therefore, I only charge a processing fee." Connie hesitated for a moment and said, "If it's just based on the materials, it's free. I originally wanted to give it to you for free, but that offer was rejected."
“Heaven?” Deedri murmured, then her eyes suddenly lit up: “Are the armors here expensive?”
“Armor? It depends on the type. Heavy armor will be cheaper, but chainmail and the like are still not cheap. Of course, you won’t find a cheaper place than here compared to other places.” Connie rubbed his chin and said, “However, these things are not sold to outsiders. There’s a rule that these things cannot be sold to foreigners. If you want to buy them, you have to come with us, and I will help you in my name.”
Are you a local?
"There is proof."
"Actually?"
“I am a priest,” Connie said in a low voice.
After a silence of about three seconds, Deedri touched the ram's horns on her head.
"Don't you hate this thing?" she tried to ask.
Although fire goats hold a legitimate position in human society, and monsters, both male and female, strive to be as beautiful as possible to please humans, Deedre won everyone's favor through her achievements, as well as her excellent figure and face.
However, some people still rolled their eyes at her. After all, as a monster, it's perfectly normal for humans to dislike monsters.
“I am full of hostility towards you,” Connie said calmly. “I don’t like monsters, although I know that the Fire Goat is a race that is friendly to humans. But my family died at the hands of monsters, so I have been alone since I was a child.”
He spoke normally, making no attempt to hide the fact that he hated monsters.
Denos hesitated, wanting to say something to ease the tension, when he suddenly heard Deedri's laughter.
“That’s good.” She walked over and patted Connie on the shoulder with a bright smile. “I’ve never been able to hate someone like you. Wait a moment while I change my clothes and bring my knife just in case.”
"Why?" Connie was also a little puzzled.
“I’d rather work with someone like you than with those who say they don’t hate monsters but stab me in the back. At least I know not to bother you when there’s nothing to do. We won’t be friends, but we won’t be enemies either.” Deedri said, turning around. “I’ll be as fast as I can.”
"Don't expect a girl to get back to her room quickly," Ghost Duke said slyly. "They'll spend a lot of time on makeup and choosing the right clothes to go out."
"Well, as for the latter, I'm ashamed to say, I only have this one set of clothes. At most, I wrap bandages around it." Dedeline pointed to her clothes, which were full of holes, with a headache. She knew that it was indeed a bit too revealing, but her physical condition meant that if she wore ordinary clothes, she would be soaked in sweat during a fight, which would hinder her movements and might even make her look like a balloon. "But what about the former?"
"A method to make you more beautiful, achieved by applying something like paint to your face." Ghost Duke suddenly gave her a thumbs up: "Of course! For you, those little tricks seem so useless."
Is this a compliment?
“From the bottom of my heart,” Ghost Duke said with a grin.
After the guy had walked away, Connie looked at Denos and asked:
"Where has the High Priest gone? I haven't seen him."
"Someone asked him for help, so he's temporarily away. Is there something you need him for?"
"Nothing serious, it's just that it's been a long time since I've seen a high-ranking priest. I'd like to see more of them." He hesitated for a moment before asking, "But did he go to help? What could have caused it...? Are there people in this city exhibiting signs of corruption?"
"I don't know."
“Theoretically impossible. This city is protected by a barrier, a barrier created using alchemy and sorcery. The flow of elements within this space is regulated; corruption shouldn't occur here.” Connie hesitated for a moment, then thought, “So what… is he doing now?”
......
Carl looked at the child lying on the bed and made the sign of the cross on his chest.
"Please save my child, sir." The innkeeper wished he could kneel down again right now.
"Why is this happening?" He sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at the child lying on it.
It's a boy, lying on the bed with his eyes closed. His skin is pure white, frighteningly white.
Carl pulled back the covers, looked at what was inside, and his lips twitched.
Those were flowers and vines, growing from the child's skin as if the child were nourishment.
“I don’t know. He was injured and corrupted while he was outside.” The boss’s voice was broken. “We use this drug to treat corruption here, but we’ve never seen anyone injured this badly. I tried giving him a higher dose, and he’s been like this ever since, never waking up again.”
Carl glanced at the bottle and frowned.
“Black Flower, a product of alchemy and witchcraft. A very valuable medicine.” He looked at it and said, “Do you have a lot of this?”
"Yes." The boss nodded: "It's issued to us by the guards, and it's distributed according to the quota every month."
“Karl, what is that?” Lori looked at the child’s body, her face turning a little pale.
“It’s a plant that absorbs magic to grow. The essence of this medicine is its seed. It can be ingested if it’s slightly decayed, and it will be excreted from the body before it grows inside. It won’t have any effect on the body.” Karl frowned. “But even if it’s severely injured, it’s outrageous for it to grow like this.”
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