Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Once I stepped inside the pantry and returned to human form, the first thing I did was pinch my nose.

……The onions are overwhelming.

The distinctive onion scent wafting from the massive pile of onions gave me a slight headache.
Since becoming a vampire, my sense of smell has become much sharper, and that keen sense has been further enhanced by the effects of my “Enhanced Smell” skill.
Even smells that didn’t bother me when I was human, I now find myself avoiding.
While onions are delicious when cooked, I’ve come to really dislike the unique smell of raw onions.
It seems there’s rice and flour stored in the pantry as well, but the smell of green onions is so strong I can’t make out the details.

“Koff… this way, I suppose.”

Muttering to myself in a slightly muffled voice from holding my nose, I headed deeper into the pantry.
As if there were no longer any need to hide it, there was a staircase leading down to the basement.
The walls around the stairs looked somewhat unnatural. It appeared as though the bricks had either crumbled or been intentionally removed.
It’s just a guess, but this basement must have been built later. An additional space added after the mansion was constructed, created by breaking through the pantry wall and digging a hole. That’s why the connection looks so unnatural.

……Wouldn’t something like this usually be in one’s own room?

This is such a massive renovation. There’s no doubt the lord himself oversaw it. So why didn’t he build the entrance in his own room?
What’s right in front of me is clearly a staircase leading to a secret basement. Normally, the entrance to something like this would naturally be built so you can descend from your own room.
If it were in his own room, he could go down without anyone seeing him, and since you’d have to pass through a private room to get there, it’s unlikely anyone would just wander in.
But the entrance to this mansion’s basement was in the pantry. It’s definitely right in front of me now.

……Could it be that the lord himself is in charge of cooking?

If that were the case, it would make sense to build the entrance to the basement in the pantry, a place only he would enter… but well, there’s no point in speculating.
It was starting to feel like a hassle, so I decided to just accept the facts right in front of me and headed for the stairs.
Feeling the cool air all over my body, I descended into the basement. As expected, it felt cold without any clothes on, but it wasn’t unbearable.
I slowly made my way down the unlit staircase and eventually arrived at a room.

The first thing that caught my eye at the bottom of the stairs was a massive picture on the floor.
The picture, done in purple paint, was circular, with numerous intricate patterns drawn inside the circle.
It was a strange painting, as if someone had drawn a circle and then relentlessly overlaid it with countless symbols. The term “magic circle” immediately popped into my head.
The purple paint glowed faintly, giving off a somewhat eerie atmosphere.

Armor figures wielding swords were arranged in a circle around that mysterious array.
Full plate armor covering them from head to toe. Each figure was positioned as if unnaturally forced into a seated posture, and it seemed no one was inside them.

And there she was, in the center of the array. Entangled in chains extending from the ceiling, suspended as if hanging.
Her foxbrown-colored fur was dirty, her ears drooped limply, and the kimono she wore was badly tattered.
Her feet did not touch the ground; she was hovering slightly above it. The only part touching the floor was her nine tails, hanging limply.

“Ah…”

The moment I saw her, I knew. I realized it. That her life had long since ended.
She wouldn’t look like that if she were simply hanging there, drained of strength.
She wasn’t drained of strength. Her soul had already left her. She hadn’t even let go of her strength.
She was a corpse, completely at ease.

Even though I understood that, I approached the woman hanging there. I walked toward her, not caring that I was stepping on the paint of the magic circle.

“…Good evening.”

Looking up at her face from below, I was struck by how astonishingly beautiful she was.
Her eyelids, framed by long lashes, were closed, and her plump, crimson lips were slightly parted, as if she were still breathing. There was no sign of decay or injury anywhere.
There was no stench of death, or the smell of rotting flesh. All I could smell was the scent of an animal and the sweet fragrance unique to a woman.
She looked as if she were merely sleeping.

Yet she was not alive. She was dead, just as soundly as if she were sleeping.
She offered no reply to my words. She remained there, maintaining her silence.
Her beauty was likely due to some form of embalming.

……If that’s the case, then what is this sensation?

The flow of mana I still feel. The source is undoubtedly her body.
Does this mean the corpse called out to me? Why? How?
As these questions crossed my mind, a change occurred at my feet. The purple magic circle began to glow intensely.

At first I thought it was a trap, but it seems not.
The light, which had been purple, began to turn golden. Golden glow filled the space at my feet and spread out.
Just as I was feeling as if I were standing in a vast wheat field, a woman appeared before me.

Her fox ears stood straight up toward the ceiling. Her fox-like, slightly slanted yellow eyes.
The kimono she wore was a slightly flashy one, red like a red spider lily, adorned with uniquely shaped flowers.
From the corners of her mouth, which curved into a faint smile, the fangs of a beast peeked out.
She was someone who looked exactly like the woman hanging there.

“Who are you?”
“I’m leaving this record here in case someone other than a human should appear here.”
“A record…?”
“I was invited here by the lord of this mansion. He asked me to work with him to find a way to stop the war… that was the gist of it.”

She continued speaking, ignoring my question and never once looking in my direction.
Considering that she said she left this record, the woman speaking to me now must be the same person as the one hanging next to me.
Before her life ended, she used magic to leave behind these images and words. In my previous world, it would be akin to a video will.
In the world I know, words recorded on video or a recorder aren’t legally recognized as a will… but this is a different world, and the one who left this behind is a fox, while the one watching is a vampire. I suppose there’s no need to be so pedantic.
She resembles Kuzuha-chan, but with a much calmer tone of voice, the woman with fox ears speaks.

“I was deceived… but I no longer hold a grudge over that. It was my own fault for worrying about the fate of the world and losing sight of what was right in front of me. My only concern is my daughter, Kuzuha… she’s such a pure child… oh, would you like to see a photo?　This one was taken right after she was born—she’s so cute. Look, isn’t she adorable!”
“What are you doing right before you die?”

Even though I knew it wouldn’t get through since this was a video, I couldn’t help but ask.
Of course, it didn’t get through, so I ended up having to sit through a whole slideshow of photos while she gushed about her child. She’s acting pretty relaxed for someone who’s been captured.
Is this person really dead? Oh, and so there are photos in this other world, too.

“…Well then. Since I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my freedom as a phantom, I suppose it’s time to get back to the story.”

I don’t have a watch, so I don’t know the exact time, but after spending a good few minutes indulging in doting parenthood, she brought her tone back to a serious one.
She seems to be quite the emotional rollercoaster. In the sense that she gets carried away easily, she might be just like her daughter.

“I don’t know who is watching this footage, and I realize I have no right to ask this of you… but could you please look after my daughter? Please… I beg of you.”

She bowed deeply—and while maintaining that posture, the fox woman transformed into something resembling golden particles. She dissipated into mist and vanished.
At the same moment, the foxbrown-colored light faded, and the basement was once again filled with an eerie purple glow.

“…What a foolish person.”

If her daughter was that important to her, she should have at least prepared some words to pass on to her.
Her daughter was too precious to her; she had simply forgotten. That must be it.
Rather than expressing her own feelings, she thought too much about her daughter and ended up relying on someone else.
Even if she left behind a video, there’s no guarantee anyone would ever see it. Yet she was willing to gamble on that slim chance.

“I cannot grant your request.”

I think that sentiment is noble. But why should I be the one to do such a thing?
I’m a lazy bum who can’t even take care of myself, let alone look after someone else.
There’s nothing in it for me to grant the request of a corpse I just met today, someone with whom I have no connection.

“…All I’m doing is repaying a debt.”

I just want to return what I’ve been given. To do that, I’ll take her to her daughter.
What happens after that is up to Kuzuha-chan to decide. She is neither an outsider nor a corpse—she is the person herself, and she must continue to live.

I untangle the chains wrapped around the body of the woman whose name I don’t even know.
They weren’t tied or locked; they were simply wrapped around her, so it wasn’t that hard to remove them, but I fumbled a bit because of the height difference.

“Mm, heave-ho.”

She’s taller than me, and since she’s dead, her body has no muscle tone, so she’s heavier than she looks.
That said, I’m a vampire. A single corpse isn’t much of a burden. Gently, in a princess carry, I lift Kuzuha-chan’s mother into my arms.

Let’s go back to Kuzuha-chan’s hut. The moment I thought that, the glow at my feet intensified once more.
Unlike before, the light didn’t shift to a golden hue. Instead, a purple glow filled the entire room.

“I didn’t expect a visitor this late at night.”

Echoing from the direction of the stairs was the voice of a man with a calm demeanor. It seemed my intrusion had been discovered.
Perhaps moving the body had triggered some sort of detection mechanism. This has turned into quite a hassle.