Lich for Hire

Chapter 515: The Lich's Lawful Heir

Black Rose wore an ornate red gown, a striking departure from her usual all-black attire, as if she'd become a different person entirely.

An icy chill radiated from her, enough to make anyone shudder just by looking at her.

Gustavo Flynn had witnessed Black Rose's horrors firsthand. If Ambrose hadn't intervened back then, he would have already been turned into an undead.

But wasn't she supposed to be dead?

When a lich's obsession vanished, the anchor tethering the lich's soul would vanish. Unsustained by any emotion whatsoever, the lich would slip into unconsciousness, losing all ability to act.

Everyone knew the Lyon royal family had been this queen's obsession. Now that the Lyon royal family was utterly finished, and Lyon itself on the verge of changing its name, shouldn't she be satisfied? Shouldn't she be dead by now?

Unless her hatred had never been for the royal family alone, but for all of Lyon.

Whatever the reason, Black Rose's reappearance changed everything about these negotiations.

Black Rose sat down beside Harvey, inviting the young man to take a seat, then turned to the visibly tense Gustavo Flynn. "You sent people into the Umbral Depths to spy on my condition. You sent people overseas to negotiate with the dragons. You even sent people to the Court of the Silver Moon and the Emerald Dreamwood, all to prepare a coalition that would carve up everything he left behind."

Gustavo Flynn no longer dared to press as aggressively as before. He chose his words carefully. "The dwarven kingdom needs those holdings. We have to reclaim what was once ours."

Better to pin the blame on the dwarven king—though that was only half the truth.

Lyon had been devastated from the inside out. Simply keeping the empire from collapsing entirely would be difficult enough. For the dwarven king, this would be his best chance to reclaim the desert in years. The commercial empire Ambrose had built would serve as the perfect accelerant for the dwarves, igniting their hopes of returning to their homeland.

"I don't care whose idea it was."

The queen of the Umbral Depths snapped her fingers. More than a dozen zombies materialized in the room.

Gustavo Flynn lost all his composure.

They were all his subordinates, and two of them were even core members of the Alchemists' Guild.

Gustavo Flynn tried to react, only to find that his hands no longer obeyed him. He looked down to see that his arms had turned the ashen gray of death.

Without his even noticing, his arms had transformed into undead flesh.

A forced undead transformation that ignored any shields and any healing effect whatsoever—that was the true horror of this queen. He might have died without even knowing how.

Black Rose looked Gustavo Flynn in the eyes and said, evenly, "What belongs to him, no one shall touch. If the Alchemists' Guild wants to take it, I guarantee that none of you will survive the month. If the dwarven king wants to take it, I guarantee that the dwarven kingdom will fall within the year. Carry my words back to your master. Then get out."

Black Rose gave Gustavo Flynn no chance to explain himself. She had the zombies seize him and hurl him bodily out of the room.

Gustavo Flynn didn't dare resist. If the necrosis stopped at his arms, that was fine. He could cut them off and grow them back. But if his whole body turned undead, there would be no coming back from that.

Once she'd sent the greedy alchemist packing, Black Rose turned to Harvey. "You did well just now. Your master was a man who dared to curse gods to their face. If you let some third-rate alchemist rattle you, you wouldn't deserve to be his student."

Harvey had no attention to spare for the compliment. He asked, anxious, "Lady Rose, how is my master doing right now?"

Black Rose fell silent for a moment. "I've preserved his remains."

Few had the standing to claim Ambrose's body after his death. In the end, it was Black Rose who carefully gathered every last piece of him, hoping to bring him back.

But no matter how she reshaped his corpse, despite having restored it to the appearance of his youth, she couldn't call his soul back. All she could do was keep his body preserved for now within Mercury City, while she searched for another way forward.

"Is his soul really gone?" Harvey grieved.

"That's impossible. There is no one in this world more clever than your master. He'll have prepared something. He'll come back. All we have to do is wait. If you can't bear the wait, come find me in the Umbral Depths. I can let you live forever."

Harvey managed a bitter smile. "I'm afraid I need to free myself from the grip of Fate first. That's what my master wanted me to do. Since you're willing to take over, Lady Rose, then I shall leave all his holdings with you. I'll have every ledger sent to the Umbral Depths. I need to devote myself to the notes he left me."

Black Rose didn't object. Harvey had never really been suited to business; he was a scholar, pure and simple.

"Fine. It's your choice to make. But don't worry. Your master may be gone for now, but his friends are still here."

With that, Black Rose turned to leave.

Her trip to Gold Coin Island had only ever been meant to teach Gustavo Flynn a lesson. She had far more important matters ahead of her.

Since Ambrose's departure, Black Rose hadn't had a moment's rest.

After reconstructing his body, she then attempted every method she could think of to call back his soul, and was now about to take over his business empire.

She'd assumed it wouldn't be so hard. Only once she actually took the reins did she discover just how complex everything was. Even an undead who needed no sleep found untangling it all exhausting.

The one thing that gave Black Rose any relief was the Court of the Silver Moon's attitude. The elves, it turned out, valued "good faith" far more than humans did. Once Black Rose produced Milena, Ambrose's "lawful heir," the elves declared that every existing arrangement would proceed exactly as agreed, down to the last unit of the magical materials owed to Ambrose each year.

The elves wouldn't take advantage of a hero's successor the moment he was gone, even though Ambrose had swindled them ruthlessly multiple times in their past dealings.

That was the nature of elven honor. As a rule, elves held themselves to a higher moral standard than humans did. It wasn't merely a stereotype, but a fact.

With the elves' backing secured, the drow shipping lines would hold steady. The airship routes were the lifeblood of Ambrose's entire commercial empire, the key to keeping everything running.

With that major problem resolved, the dwarven kingdom would become a much simpler matter to deal with.

These humans and dwarves still didn't understand Ambrose's connection to the God of Alchemy. How utterly foolish of them.

Only his apprentice, Isabel, showed any real foresight. Without hesitation, she took Black Rose's side, flatly refusing the Alchemists' Guild's overtures and even mailing back her own membership credentials to make the break absolute.

For Isabel, this amounted to torching her own future. She had been the Guild's rising star. Several of her products were aggressively promoted by the organization, and her fame and fortune were climbing steadily.

The moment Isabel severed ties with the Guild, a wave of mockery and abuse descended on her, almost as if it had been prepared in advance: the once-celebrated alchemical prodigy recast overnight as a fraud who'd faked her reputation.

Isabel didn't care in the slightest. She shut her castle gates and ignored everyone.

Only when Black Rose showed up in person did she finally speak up, and not about the mockery. She only wanted to know if her master was safe.

The moment she learned Ambrose couldn't be revived, the resilient young woman fainted on the spot.

Black Rose felt a pang of admiration. It was only natural, she supposed. Every student he'd chosen was exceptional in character and in ability both.

Only Selwyn struck her as a little odd. Unlike Harvey, she showed no particular passion for his diviner's notes. Instead, she seemed far more interested in the business Ambrose had left behind.

Selwyn had stood out while working under Ambrose. Black Rose had no better candidate on hand, so she simply took over the public-facing role for herself while Selwyn handled operations on the back end. So far, her performance had been solid.

Once she'd driven off Gustavo Flynn, Black Rose hurried off toward yet another destination.

This one had nothing to do with Ambrose's holdings, but it mattered more than any business empire ever could.

It was a gathering of the Elegiac Society, and its President, Mourner, would be attending.

If anyone in this world could bring him back, the President surely could. Black Rose's only worry now was what price she might have to pay for the President's help.

The President of the Elegiac Society had always been its most mysterious and most complicated member. Black Rose knew almost nothing about him, not even what he might want in return.

But it was a hope, and Black Rose intended to hold onto it with everything she had.

Standing in the teleportation array, Black Rose clenched her fists.

"I will bring you back. I will!"