How dare he spout such reckless nonsense before the White King!
Even tearing him limb from limb wouldn’t have been enough.
No matter that he had passed through the Mystery Hall, there was no way a single achievement like that could make him equal to the White King.
The myths the White King had built were beyond counting.
‘I threw the decisive move.’
Now there really was no turning back.
It was swagger to the point of making one’s hands and feet curl up, but the White King wouldn’t be able to ignore it either.
Because he’d already ignored him once and paid dearly for it.
Both the Four Great Masters, and the White King, had suffered humiliation worse than death at Wilhelm’s hands.
The White King looks at me.
I, too, smiled faintly.
It felt as if the two gazes crashed in midair and flared violently, throwing off sparks.
“Interesting. Still, it’s not wrong.”
As the White King conceded, the Four Great Masters’ gazes shifted again.
The White King saying something like that to a mere Corpse Crow!
The White King is an absolute being who never speaks empty words.
If he saw it that way, then it had to be true.
Which meant,
‘The White King regards the Corpse Crow as his equal······.’
The same thought flooded the Four Great Masters’ minds at once.
Equal.
Not some simple Corpse Crow, but a true Transcendent Species.
“I have no desire to cause a ruckus either, caw.”
······This is where I need to take a step back.
The White King yielded.
Probably the maximum he could.
If I pushed one step further, it would be war.
And once war started, I’d likely die before I even realized it had begun.
This exchange was enough.
Stepping further would be the road to getting swallowed by acting and sinking into a swamp.
“Instead, if you find out what lies beyond that ultimate mystery the ‘star guardians’ are seeking, can you tell me what it is?”
“Just telling you is enough, caw?”
“I won’t be greedy beyond that. I’m merely curious. Whether there truly is another star.”
That was all.
Curiosity.
With only that, he placed a crown on my head.
There was a small disturbance, but this was about as clean a resolution as it could be.
“Is there anyone who opposes Randolph becoming the Fifth Great Master?”
The White King swept his gaze over the Four Great Masters.
“I oppose it.”
“I do as well.”
The Great Earth Dragon and Qiongqi came forward in opposition.
Two votes against.
“Then who is in favor?”
“Since we’re of the same lineage.”
“······.”
The Death King and Medusa stepped up in favor.
Same lineage.
Meaning, those who handle corpses.
And Medusa likely voted in favor meaning she intended to watch me closely.
“Two in favor and two against, huh.”
The White King laughed loudly once, as if amused.
If it had been unanimous, it would’ve been no fun.
More importantly,
‘If he’s a being who can destroy even a unique-grade mystery, it’d be a waste to make an enemy of him.’
Honestly, it was half doubt.
Whether that Corpse Crow could truly destroy even a unique-grade mystery.
Because anything bearing the name “unique” was not something even the White King could take lightly.
If he failed, then that was it.
If he saw the end of the mystery and still couldn’t do it, there’d be no need to stay on guard.
But if it became certain that the Corpse Crow could destroy even a unique-grade mystery, the White King wouldn’t want to turn him into an enemy.
At the very least, it would be proof that what he said about Kramdel disappearing wasn’t a lie.
And if he could persuade the tightly shut star guardians, there was no harm in keeping someone like that close.
He could watch and decide later.
“Then it’s decided.”
The White King placed a hand on my shoulder.
That made it three in favor, two against.
“Randolph. From this moment on, you are the Fifth Great Master.”
······And so.
Truly out of nowhere, I became the Fifth Great Master.
One of Kramdel’s true rulers.
A Corpse Crow standing at the apex of monsters.
***
The place the White King left behind.
I can feel all the Four Great Masters staring at me with strange looks.
“O Fifth Great Master. For a while, you should live in my castle with me. We’ll need to build a separate castle for you.”
That was when the Death King approached.
The king of the dead.
The master of Necro Valley, and the one whose insides were hardest to read.
A huge body made of a gigantic skeleton. Smaller than a giant, but I could feel higher-purity Mana than even that.
His black robe was ominous at a glance.
Yet he had cast a supporting vote for me becoming the Fifth Great Master.
At least for now, proof he wasn’t an ‘enemy.’
“I won’t refuse, caw.”
“Mm. Tomorrow morning, I’ll announce the birth of the new Master. Until then you are a guest, so I will escort you. Anywhere you wish to go?”
An escort from the Death King.
That was a rare thing.
‘Perfect timing.’
From the start, I’d intended to get close to the Death King.
I never expected it to unfold like this, but if he acted friendly, I could push deeper.
“If you’re the king of the dead, you must be conducting ‘experiments’ worthy of that title too, caw?”
“Of course. Experiments on corpses are the meaning of my life.”
“Then I want to see your ‘laboratory’ once, caw.”
“······ You’re welcome.”
The Death King answered in a slightly excited voice.
For someone who handled death, the experiments he performed were such a ‘vile hobby’ that even other Masters would click their tongues.
There had been no strong one of the same lineage who could sympathize with it.
The weak only pretended to understand, and the strong couldn’t truly see his art.
What would this Corpse Crow be like?
“Then, come with me. To my resting place.”
***
Before the White King’s Hall, Isaac and Isabella waited anxiously.
‘Crazy······ the White King?’
Isaac especially felt like he’d suffocate to death.
He never imagined the Star Bearer would go to an audience with the White King in person!
Most monsters in Kramdel die without seeing the White King’s face even once. Though he’d been in Kramdel for a year, Isaac had never seen the White King directly either.
Yet in this short span of time, the Star Bearer went in to see the White King himself.
‘Is this a dream?’
When he pinched his cheek, a stinging pain came through.
That pain couldn’t be a dream, so this had to be reality.
Meeting the Star Bearer at the hot springs, coming here with the Four Great Masters all the way to the White King’s Hall.
‘······I should run even now. There’s no way anyone meets the White King and returns alive.’
If this was reality, it felt terrible.
The Four Great Masters aside, the White King was a cold monster.
An insurmountable wall.
Even the rulers of the abyss avoid the White King, don’t they?
No matter how he thought about it, it was insane.
But the truly insane thing happened next.
“······!”
Isaac’s eyes widened as if they’d pop out.
Because two figures were coming out of the White King’s Hall.
‘Th, the Death King!’
The Death King!
One of the Four Great Masters, and among them the most vicious and terrifying.
A monster among monsters who steals both souls and corpses and makes them into thralls.
The creature said to be impossible to escape once caught, and he was walking together with the Star Bearer.
“If you see my resting place, you’ll be satisfied as well.”
“I’m looking forward to it, caw.”
“You may look forward to it.”
······And somehow, they even looked oddly friendly.
This had to be a dream.
If it were reality, there was no way those two would walk so companionably.
Then the Star Bearer pointed at them and said,
“You two follow as well, caw.”
······Damn it.
Now there was no escaping.
‘I shouldn’t have taken the Great Cataclysm Talisman.’
For a moment, he thought that quietly building a life in Kramdel might not have been so bad.
And he also realized he could never go back to before.
He had already stepped into the eye of the storm. The moment he received the Great Cataclysm Talisman, his future was practically decided.
So Isaac prayed and prayed.
Please let me see tomorrow’s sun.
***
The Death King’s laboratory.
A secret zone beneath his castle.
The moment Isaac stepped inside, he clamped a hand over his nose.
“Ugh······!”
He barely held back a dry heave.
Not just the smell.
‘This is the most vicious hobby I’ve ever seen in my life.’
All kinds of corpses gathered in all kinds of forms.
Some hung from the ceiling, some were skewered into the walls, some lay strewn across the floor.
Even Isabella, who showed no emotion, faintly knitted her brow.
It went beyond horrible.
“Splendid, caw.”
······He called that splendid?
And it didn’t sound like empty words.
The Star Bearer’s tone held sincerity.
“Does it look that way?”
“I can feel an artistic sense in it, caw.”
“Haha! As expected of the same lineage, you know how to see it. If there’s a piece you want, I’ll give you one.”
A piece?
‘This is a piece?’
These corpses?
Isaac couldn’t understand the artistic sense of those two at all.
What they were empathizing with, what they were laughing about.
Grrk.
Grrrkk.
And besides, the things he thought were corpses were moving faintly.
They were alive.
‘An undead den.’
It was the most horrific sight Isaac had ever seen.
He couldn’t understand why the Star Bearer had come here.
He glanced at Isabella just in case, and Isabella slowly shook her head.
Just follow quietly.
Then the Star Bearer pointed in one direction of the lab and asked,
“Then can you give me that as well, caw?”
In an instant, the Death King halted.
The playful air up to now evaporated as if deleted.
What Randolph pointed at, what the Corpse Crow asked if he could give, was one of the Death King’s most treasured works.
“······So you truly know how to see.”
The Death King’s tone turned grave.
As if all the banter until now had been an act.
Because none of the many artists of corpses had ever recognized his art properly.
They only pretended to see it, or forced agreement out of fear.
And those people had their eyes gouged out at once.
To stand before fantastic art and not react was a sin.
What use were eyes to those who couldn’t truly see art?
So he had assumed this Corpse Crow would be the same.
No matter how the White King acknowledged him, art was a different realm entirely.
‘To think he’d pick that right away.’
From the start, he had no interest in anything else.
Randolph selected the art piece the Death King cherished most.
Not pretending to see it — this Corpse Crow truly recognized his art. He understood art.
A corpse bound to the wall.
It resembled a human woman, but above the neck there was no face.
Yet among what he had made, that was the most threatening test subject.
Its exterior was ordinary, but it was his greatest masterpiece.
“That is my finest art. I captured a human who was once an Eldritch and made it. A body holding such an appalling curse is material one rarely finds.”
The Death King’s voice brimmed with pride.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
That was when it happened.
With a tremor, armor wrapped itself around the corpse.
Radiating tremendous curses and Mana, the being tried to break the sealing sphere.
“Keuheuheu. As expected of my finest masterpiece. To think it would even try to break the warhorse’s sealing sphere!”
Hearing that, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
'I'm a step too late.'
The daughter of Priest Andrew.
That corpse bound within the sealing sphere was Andasar.
······Andasar had already become a headless undead, a Dullahan.
Inviolable.
Two years ago, when I went to hunt the White King.
Even then, I already knew the Death King had taken Andasar as a test subject.
‘Back then I thought it was like some special event.’
I thought Andasar, who had become an Eldritch through Eldritch’s Cursed Black Grimoire, would become the Death King’s test subject and trigger a special event.
Besides, I was busy forcing the Four Great Masters to kneel and luring out the White King.
My whole mind was on the White King, and Priest Andrew hadn’t asked me to find his daughter.
‘She still had a face then.’
Now she doesn’t.
A Dullahan, an undead called the headless knight. Strengthened by the Death King, its power needed no explanation, but the problem was the part above the neck.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As if to shatter the sealing sphere and break free, Andasar’s body writhed.
“As you can see, it hasn’t stabilized yet. I did say those words, but I can’t give you an unfinished product.”
The Death King truly meant to give a gift.
As a greeting between fellow artists with discerning eyes.
But this Dullahan was an unfinished work.