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The ghost who remained told Soul Howl how the duke tricked the Brigade of Black Lions into killing a sacred beast saying it was a monster. And she said she wanted for the duke to pay, in whatever way was possible.

That resentful ghost was Beowulf’s mother. She said she would tell Soul Howl where the Brigade of Black Lions’ secret hideout was if he fulfilled her desire. Apparently there were many personal belongings of the unit’s members hidden there.

Beowulf’s mother made sure to mention Irina’s effects were also there.

Those words seemed very deliberate, as the ghost knew Soul Howl was a necromancer and was there for Irina’s body. Her knowledge of necromancy seemed to be deep.

Personal effects ignored all the restrictions of Hero’s Coffin and could be stored freely, and also could provide various additional bonuses, making them extremely valuable when using Hero Rebirth.

Soul Howl would never pass on such an offer, so he instantly accepted the request.

All he had to go off from was an emblem on a broken piece of armor, but Soul Howl worked diligently trying to figure out who that duke was. He pored over countless books, visited various cities, and even consulted with history and lore nuts he was friends with.

In this instance those history loving people reacted very excitedly to Soul Howl’s inquiries. Especially when they heard about the truth behind Irina the slaughterer’s story.

All of them worked really hard to research the matter, so Soul Howl actually found out who that duke was.

Meanwhile Soul Howl kept brainstorming how to clear Beowulf’s mother’s regrets, but reality kept thwarting any idea he got.

The main reason being that the duke who tricked the Brigade of Black Lions into killing a sacred beast had already passed away more than two centuries ago. All of the duke’s close relatives were dead, even his grandchildren, so it made little sense to punish someone who did not even know the duke, and it would not serve as consolation to Beowulf’s mother.

Soul Howl had gotten this far so he did not give up though. He had already scouted the ruined duchy’s mansion, and knew their history thanks to records he found in a securely guarded archive.

According to them, the downfall of the duchy was caused by a curse. After a certain day, everyone in the bloodline began meeting untimely deaths one after another.

At first Soul Howl thought that was because the duke attempted to raid the sacred gravesite, but as he read further he realized that was not it.

The records showed that the duke believed he desperately needed the Artifact guarded in the sacred gravesite to dispel the curse.

In other words, the duke only got interested in that place to help his wife, children, and anyone related by blood to him. But a sacred beast was protecting the place, stopping anyone from entering. At the same time, the longer he waited the more people died.

Hiring the Brigand of Black Lions had been his last ditch effort. Soul Howl knew how that ended, there did not seem to be a good way around that.

No matter how much he looked into the matter, he could not find anything more, leaving him with no way to help Beowulf’s mother. But since that all seemed to be the truth, he decided to just relay everything as it was to her.

Hearing the whole story, her face quickly softened, like a demonic weight had been on her all that time.

While she could not forgive the duke’s actions, the fact that he did it for his family seemed to resonate with her as a mother.

And that was enough for her to feel comfortable with telling Soul Howl where the Brigade of Black Lions’ hideout was located.

Beowulf’s mother quickly returned to heaven with a relaxed expression, and Soul Howl headed to the hideout right away.

When he got there he was slapped by yet another harsh truth. Someone had already found the hideout in the past, raiding it and taking everything from it.

It was a disheartening find, but then Soul Howl saw something on the floor. It looked like a hair ornament, but it was made of wood, so those chasing after valuable treasure would not have looked at it.

But Soul Howl could see strong emotions imbued in that hair ornament. He did not know for whom those emotions were, but he knew who they came from.

That was something Soul Howl had been looking for, one of Irina’s effects.

「Somehow your complexion looks better today.」

A golem momentarily taking the form of Irina was not enough for Soul Howl, so instead he used Hero’s Coffin to directly talk to her body. To anyone she looked dead, completely immobile, but he believed she looked happy to be back with Soul Howl.

The coffin was quite a bit larger than a regular one, and inside was Irina’s body wearing a thin white dress. She still looked beautiful though, and all the burial articles next to her were pristine items that rivaled legendary items.

Only one item was not placed next to her, the wooden hair ornament which she had on her hair, and which was a personal effect she used in life.

Soul Howl gently touched that hair ornament as he looked at Irina attentively, holding back a suspicious grin. Regardless of whether one knew or not about Soul Howl’s obsession, anyone would feel disgusted and step away seeing him like that.

The hair ornament’s effect was to raise her attack power by a certain multiplier, which had a really good synergy with Irina’s large battleaxe. Combined with her strengthened coffin, and Soul Howl’s abilities, her potential in battle was sky high, even higher than the last time Mira had seen Irina.

(His usual degeneracy is starting…)

Mira could relate with the pain of not seeing someone in a long time, but considering the pair ahead, whoever could stand seeing Soul Howl like that with a corpse was truly a saint. Mira could not understand Soul Howl, but she did know him, so she just sighed in disbelief.

『Mira, Mira, exactly who could that girl be?』

While Mira watched in silence, waiting for Soul Howl to be done, Martel’s voice suddenly popped into her head. Martel had convinced herself that there was some exquisite love story between Soul Howl and the girl frozen in time in the Chalk Castle, so she could not allow herself to overlook what was happening now.

『Ahh, err…how should I explain…』

Noticing Martel’s bothered voice, Mira decided to tell her the story of how Soul Howl met his wife (everything about the Brigade of Black Lions), or at least the short version.

『And so, since he’s into undead chi-…since he loves undead women…』

In the end, Mira mentioned how Soul Howl would always act that way around Irina, calling her his main wife.

『I see, so it’s not like his real wife or love passed away… So he just fell in love with someone who’s already dead then?』

It was a shocking story for Martel. Or rather, anyone would be caught off-guard by Soul Howl’s obsession. Seeing him adore a corpse like that was way past a bizarre sight.

『Basically yes.』
『So he loves a woman who will never die…』

That was the truth, so Mira did not deny it, and Martel continued muttering in a saddened voice.

Mira figured that no matter how lenient and hung-strung about love Martel was, she would give up on him too, but her romance-tuned brain would not cave in just yet.

『He must be terrified of losing a loved one then. So now he loves someone who can’t be taken away from him by death… I see, he must’ve walked a heartbreaking path to get here. But that’s alright, I’m sure his efforts will be rewarded, I can tell. The moment her life is spared, he’ll see the beauty of life too, and then awaken to true love!』

Mira could no longer follow Martel’s reasoning, and just grimaced as she listened to her blabber about love. The Spirit King also paid her little attention, siding with Mira.

「So how do you feel now? Do you think you can do it?」

Given how long it had been, Soul Howl could not contain himself from going further and further into a terrifying and dark place. Mira knew they would get nowhere if he was allowed to continue, so she called out to him.

Soul Howl then gave Irina a quick 「See you in a bit」 and undid Hero’s Coffin before turning around.

「I feel like new, and nothing feels off. I’m sure I’ll be able to fight with everything I have tomorrow.」

Maybe because he had finally gotten some quality time with his wife after years, Soul Howl’s voice sounded more reassured and confident than it had any reason to be.

「That’s good to know. Then let’s figure out our plan to fight Machina Guardian tomorrow.」

Mira said that as she opened the spirit mansion’s door. Soul Howl’s high level spells had been restored, and he had gotten stronger since the last time she had seen him, giving them many more options to fight. They needed a strategy meeting to discuss everything new and how to combine their attacks the next day.

「Yeah, you’re right. There’s no need to chip away at the boss’ health. Let’s just hit it with everything we got.」
「Oh? You sound confident.」
「I guess. It’s really no biggie when I have my high level spells. And I’m sure you have something up your sleeve as well, don’t you Elder?」

They were against a raid boss of the highest level, but Soul Howl still grinned unconcerned, even though the way Mira remembered him he still had some ways to go before being strong enough to deal with Machina Guardian. Maybe he had gained the necessary skills while she was gone though.

Mira also had a secret skill to overturn the fight in their favor though.

「Well, yes, that might be true. Let’s finish it off tomorrow then.」

Mira sat on her sleeping bag and Soul Howl just plopped on the ground wherever he felt best, and they sketched out their entire plan. If anyone, even a high ranking adventurer, heard the way they spoke about their next fight, they would have thought the two were completely deluded.