035 Whispers of the Departed

In truth, villages like Dorai, filled with families living outside the law, rarely foster long-standing lineages. Looking back over the history of Dorai Village, there are hardly any families who have lived here since its founding. Some perished in calamities, while others, after saving up a little, left Dorai to return to the Bourbon Kingdom. Ultimately, people yearn more for the stability that a kingdom provides than for the uncertainty of a lawless frontier. As long as they can afford it, none would willingly choose a life of constant peril and drifting.

Even little Mudnyph now spends her days pondering how Kairn might return to the kingdom and live a peaceful, settled life.

With no family heritage here, the village graveyard naturally fell into neglect. It was less a cemetery, more a chaotic burial ground. When Kairn arrived, he saw that the small valley—covering perhaps five or six hundred square meters—held more than a dozen fresh, haphazard burial spots, and many bones lay exposed on the surface.

Bathed in the pale moonlight, the little valley appeared especially eerie, shrouded in a sense of dread. An ordinary person, visiting at night, would likely be paralyzed with terror. For Kairn, master of the undead, such a place was nothing to fear; and as for the little Green Imp beside him, it was positively thrilled, as if it relished such surroundings.

“Take them and bring all these corpses back to the graveyard,” Kairn instructed, glancing at the cemetery before signaling the Green Imp to work. But when he turned, he saw the little creature had already bounced off toward the center of the graveyard.

“This rascal,” Kairn muttered, frowning, preparing to retrieve the rambunctious Green Imp—so energetic, like an unleashed husky—and make it behave. But before he could shout, the imp had already hopped back, clutching a flower, and ran to present it to Kairn with great excitement.

“What’s this?” Kairn was taken aback. He looked more closely at the flower: its petals were a rare, deep gray, exuding a chill, uncanny aura. As Kairn gazed at it, his Eye of Insight activated automatically.

...

Whisper of the Departed
Type: Mysterious Plant
Quality: Trash
Description: A mysterious plant that absorbs dark energy and grows in graveyards. Much favored by the undead, though it offers little to their development. It seems suitable for potion-making, or it can be sold directly to the Territory Shop to gain a certain amount of territory energy!

...

“It can be sold to the Territory Shop?” At these words, Kairn’s eyes lit up. He quickly took the flower from the Green Imp’s hand and rubbed its little skull fondly. “Well done!”

His attention wholly focused on the Whisper of the Departed, Kairn failed to notice the little imp’s delighted soul-flames as he stroked its head.

When Kairn at last withdrew his hand, the Green Imp grew anxious and began bouncing about, chattering insistently. Unfortunately, Kairn was busy communicating with the Territory Shop. While he couldn’t sell the Whisper of the Departed here—being away from his territory’s graveyard—he could still estimate its value.

This was the third method of obtaining territory energy he had discovered, and such a find could profoundly affect his domain’s development—he couldn’t afford to be indifferent.

Seeing its master preoccupied, the Green Imp cocked its head in thought, then, its soul-flames dancing, scampered away once more. Before long, just as Kairn learned from the Territory Shop that a single Trash-grade Whisper of the Departed could fetch ten points of territory energy, the Green Imp returned, having dug up another bloom. With great excitement, it presented the flower to Kairn and nudged its little skull against his hand, begging for another affectionate rub.

“No more playing cute!” Kairn said, half-laughing, half-exasperated, but he still couldn’t resist rubbing the imp’s small, smooth—if icy—skull, which felt oddly like polished jade.

Yet as he stroked the Green Imp, Kairn’s feelings were mixed. Where was the terrifying, fearsome undead minion he had envisioned? This little fellow spent its days begging for affection and acting cute—was that really appropriate?

Still, having such a companion was not so bad, he thought, a gentle smile spreading across his face. No one is born cold, ruthless, or heartless, and Kairn was no exception. If not for being thrust into this world, he would never have changed so drastically in just two months, becoming a killer without remorse.

But even now, for all his ruthlessness, Kairn’s heart was not wholly hardened; he still had his soft spots, and there were still those who could reach the gentler side of him. Once, it had only been the prideful little Mudnyph; now, there was the Green Imp as well.

Of course, Kairn had not forgotten his task this evening. After a while, he set aside the imp’s head and got down to work. Originally, he had come to move the corpses, but after discovering the Whisper of the Departed, his priorities shifted. The corpses could wait; first, he would gather all the Whispers of the Departed. After all, each Trash-grade bloom was worth ten energy points—a hundred or so would make him rich, safer and far easier than slaughter!

But the flowers needed time to grow; after searching the graveyard, Kairn found only twenty-seven, all of them Trash-grade. Still, that was a fine haul.

“Twenty-seven blooms—two hundred seventy territory energy. Quite a windfall, and, more importantly, I’ve found a new source of energy for my domain. Building up my territory will be much easier in the future,” he thought.

He packed away the Whispers of the Departed, dreamt for a moment of a brighter future, then set to work moving the corpses from this graveyard to his own.

Luckily, his territory’s graveyard was not far—just two or three miles away. With the help of fourteen undead under his command, Kairn spent two nights laboring, and at last succeeded in clearing out the Dorai graveyard and covering over the site, leaving it hidden from view.