Lance looked up at Falia, his eyes filled with shock and a hint of anger.
Across from him, the amber-eyed Witch didn’t seem to care about his gaze at all.
She wore her usual smile, took a gentle sip of her tea, and calmly met Lance’s eyes.
After a long pause, Lance’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he finally forced out a question.
“What do you need me to do?”
The Witch did not hide her intentions and answered directly, “Help me recover my body.”
Silence fell for a moment before Lance asked, “And where is your body?”
The Elf girl looked slightly troubled.
“Well… I’m not entirely sure of the specifics. I only know that the Evernight, Radiant, and Nature Churches each hold a portion, and another part is in the City of Knowledge and Wisdom, guarded by the Academy of Sages.”
When Lance heard this, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
What kind of situation was this? Could a body even be stored in separate parts like that? And it was being kept by the three major Churches and the Academy of Sages?
The simulation effects of this fake body seemed a bit too excellent, as fine beads of sweat began to break out on Lance’s forehead.
“Can I ask what you did to deserve that?”
“Do you really want to know?”
The petite Witch sitting across from him narrowed her eyes.
Her tone remained gentle, but Lance already smelled the scent of danger and quickly shook his head.
The Witch smiled and said no more. Silence returned to the room.
After a long time, seeing that Lance was hesitant to give an answer, the Witch said flatly, “Is this really for the best?”
Lance froze. Before he could speak, the Witch put on a look of distress.
“Noren is about at the age to enroll in school, isn’t she? If she were still the daughter of an Earl of the Kingdom of Midgard…”
Hearing those words, Lance felt a wave of mixed emotions. He couldn’t help but lower his head.
In this world, children of the nobility usually went to the City of Knowledge and Wisdom at the age of 16 to begin their studies, gain knowledge, make friends, and expand their social circles.
Currently, Noren was already 15, yet she was still squeezed into a rented wooden shack with him, eating cheap takeout from a local tavern.
How could Lance not know the importance of knowledge?
Although Noren had never mentioned it, it was a hurdle in Lance’s heart that he couldn’t get over.
With his strength declined to the low tiers, how could he possibly afford the exorbitant tuition fees of the various academies in the City of Knowledge and Wisdom?
“Sigh… After suffering through all those hardships, she finally found a stable place to live, only for the brother she’s depended on since childhood to mysteriously disappear in the Maze…”
“What will she think? Did her brother die at the hands of monsters? Or did he abandon her like a piece of baggage and leave on his own?”
“Sigh… Neither of those possibilities seems very good…”
Lance’s pupils shook as if he could see Noren huddled on her bed in the small wooden shack, sobbing alone.
His heart suddenly throbbed with a sharp pain.
“No! I didn’t! I wouldn’t!”
Seeing Lance’s panicked expression, the Witch across from him resumed her smiling face.
Her gaze fell on the contract in Lance’s hand, and she said softly, “It seems you have a reason why you must return.”
“As long as you go back, there will always be a way to handle Noren’s situation, won’t there?”
Lance calmed down, his mind already made up. A brand-new quill appeared by his right hand.
He picked up the quill, but he didn’t sign his name immediately. He asked one last question.
“What would happen if I refused?”
“Hehe, that would be troublesome… Broken Soul?”
“There’s no need to ask about things that won’t happen, right? My good disciple.”
‘Is there even a choice here at all?’ Lance completely gave up and resolutely signed his name on the piece of paper titled “Master-Disciple Contract,” which was actually more like a master-servant contract.
The moment he finished the stroke, an invisible connection was established between the two of them.
Lance instantly felt a large portion of his soul power vanish into thin air, flowing directly toward the girl in front of him.
The Witch nodded with satisfaction. The heavy stone in her heart finally fell, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Fortunately, I bluffed him. That scared me to death — I almost actually disappeared…’
Having replenished her soul power, Falia felt dizzy, much like the feeling of being overstuffed after a large meal.
She only wanted to hurry up and sleep to digest the external soul power.
However, considering that she needed to maintain her mysterious and powerful image, she forced herself to stay alert and snapped her fingers.
Lance instantly felt his body become ethereal as he began to drift uncontrollably toward the door.
“That’s enough for today. This master needs to rest… When I wake up… I will come find you…”
The world spun before Lance’s eyes as his consciousness faded into chaos.
……
Deep within the Great Labyrinth, in a spacious hall, a Skeleton head was placed on a pair of thighs clad in black, tight-fitting leggings.
With her deep gold hair falling down, the Elf girl looked hesitant, unsure if her next actions would have any effect.
The Elf was currently wearing a dress made of black and light brown patches, which looked like a very capable female adventurer’s outfit.
Her previous disheveled state had vanished without a trace.
The Elf had been messing with Lance’s skeletal frame for a long time, but she hadn’t gained anything.
The characteristic ghostly green soulfire in the Skeleton’s eye sockets had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.
‘How could this happen?’
Because of the tremor from earlier, the Elf girl realized the disturbance came from this hall.
She hadn’t run far, so she immediately turned back.
As soon as she entered the hall, she saw a figure in silver-gray knight armor standing in the center.
He held a longsword, and many white bones were scattered around him.
The Elf girl was furious.
She subconsciously thought that the Skeleton Soldier who had just saved her had been hacked into crafting materials by this adventurer who had appeared out of nowhere.
She immediately pulled a weapon from the void and struck the adventurer hard.
With a clang, the “adventurer’s” upper body was knocked away by the Elf girl, but the lower body remained in place.
The Elf blinked. “?”
The heavy armor slammed into the wall with a loud *thud*.
The bizarre events weren’t over yet. Right before the Elf girl’s eyes, that upper body actually “exploded” apart.
The Elf girl was startled into making confused noises for quite a while before she noticed that a skeleton was hidden inside the armor.
Feeling that something wasn’t right, the Elf picked up the fallen helmet.
She carefully poured out the Skeleton head inside and was immediately stunned.
‘It really is him! But… where is the Soul Fire?’
The Elf’s first thought was that another Undead had plundered his Soul Fire, but as she carefully examined the surroundings, she found nothing out of the ordinary.
She was puzzled. Did Undead also have a day when they died of old age? But he was perfectly fine just a moment ago!
This was the first time the Elf had faced such a situation, and she was clearly at a loss.
Having traveled to so many places in her life, she had never heard of any kind of Undead first aid.
She thought hard, but her mind was empty of solutions.
Looking at the hollow Skeleton head in her hands, it felt like something was wrong…
‘I have to put him back together first!’
At this thought, the Elf hurried to bend down and pick up the pieces of Lance’s upper body that were scattered across the floor.
Once finished, she ran back and laid down Lance’s still-upright lower body.
Squatting down, she began a session of “super assembly.”
“This goes here… No, no, it goes over there.”
“Huh? Why are there three arms?”
After struggling for a long time, the Elf’s expression turned strange.
She looked at the “roughly” complete skeletal body and then at the many extra “spare parts” left over.
‘They’re probably from some other skeleton… right?’ she thought guiltily.