Restarting Life In Another World - 142 4.4 The undead Manor

The body was on the bank of the river in a half-emerged state. It was covered in sand to the point where it was even hard to notice.

“Oh damn!”

Jackie was the first one to express his surprise in words. I was pretty surprised myself because no matter what you have been through, these kinds of situations were always somewhat scary.

“What should we do?” Jackie asked.

Markus was in no state to respond, and I could understand how he was feeling. If I were in his place, I would have probably gotten a trauma as well.

“L-let’s pull the body out and check the condition. Depending on that, we can decide what to do next,” I replied.

“Okay.”

Jackie left the magic light on one of the large rocks. The two of us then walked up to the body while Markus was still recovering and pulled it out.

It was the male body of someone who appeared to be in his forties. By his attire, it was apparent that he was a merchant. The body had started decaying, so he must have died a few days ago, but since there were no visible cut or bite marks on his body, the reason for his death was still unknown.

I wasn’t much experienced when it came to sensing the traces of mana flow for confirming the reason for death. And since the river must have already washed the miasma present in the body, any traces of evil spirit would be hard to detect. Nonetheless, it was a good idea to give it a try to see what unveils.

I placed my hand right above his head and tried passing the mana through him. Usually, this would require a phenomenal amount of concentration and precision, but since it was a dead body, I could be a little careless.

When I passed the mana through, I could sense that the body was dead long before it got into the water. There were no traces of mana left in the body except the mana present in the river water. Other than that, there were hints of evil spirits residing within the body.

Even though the hints were rather inconclusive, it was pretty much obvious that evil spirits would automatically take over any dead body at a place like this, unless they were cremated or buried.

“It looks like some kind of evil spirit had possessed his body after his death. I am not sure how he died or how his body got here, though.”

“So… the old man was right. Then, I think we should investigate the cause of it. Letting a matter like this go unattended for too long can be dangerous,” Markus said with a serious expression. It looked like he had finally gotten over the shock.

“Yes, but we have no clues on the matter. We don’t even know where to start,” I replied.

Although the river water had already purified the body, I used holy magic to purify it once more just to be sure. I then used the earth magic to dig a hole and buried the body.

There were no clues hinting who it was, and there weren’t any noteworthy possessions with him to identify him, so it all ended with that.

“There is a village a little east from here. I think we should pay them a visit,” Markus said while putting the map back inside his pocket.

“That might be a good idea, but we are already running behind schedule here. We will be making the journey longer by two days if we do that,” I replied.

Markus put his hands on his chin and thought for a while. The question was: should we ignore the problem and continue since this journey was important, and the sooner we go, the better. Or should we stop and help the nearby villages and move forward? Leaving the issue unattended could be dangerous, but then, if we don’t hurry to the capital, it may result in a bigger hazard.

“I think we should attend the issue first. If we start ignoring what’s in front of our eyes and let these people die, what kind of knights would we be?” Markus replied, to which Jackie smiled in affirmation.

That made sense, although it still sounded somewhat stupid. I was probably just thinking too far instead of looking at what’s in front of me.

I took a long breath. “Alright. Let’s ask Garo what he thinks about the idea. After that, we can decide how to proceed.”

“Ha-ha! I don’t think we need to. I am sure, as a knight, he would definitely prioritize our people’s lives.”

‘Somehow, I doubt that. I have a feeling that he would definitely prioritize the princess’s safety above everything else.’

Obviously, I didn’t say it out loud since I could be wrong here. Instead, I tried directing the conversation towards returning back to others.

“It’s getting late. And after all this, I don’t feel like cleaning myself in the river water anymore.”

“I have a similar feeling. Let’s return,” Markus replied.

The three of us then started walking back towards the tents. At this point, it had gotten completely dark, and all that we could see was how far the magic light could show.

By the time we returned, they had already started preparing dinner. For once, I wondered if it was a good idea to tell them all this before dinner, but then I saw Markus having a chat with Garo. He was probably explaining everything that happened out there to him.

While I was looking around, Princess Anna caught my hand with both of her arms and pulled me.

“Nara, it’s almost dinner time. Come and join us.”

It looked like they were having some kind of chat with the knights in Garo’s squad, so I joined them. Although after going through all that, I had completely lost my appetite.