Chapter 73 – Lich (1)

I never thought I’d end up telling my party members about my past life in front of an underground vault filled with gold bars.

Still, I calmly shared my secret.

About living in Daejeon in my past life, regaining those memories a few years ago, and thus knowing about this world well.

Oddly enough, after removing personal stories like past relationships, there wasn’t much to tell.

After finishing, I looked around at my party members’ varied expressions.

“This is… truly unexpected… A life before birth, no, wait, it wasn’t before birth, or was it after birth then too?”

Hoffman seemed unable to comprehend my words, wracking his brain.

Unlike Hoffman, Zahina pondered something completely different after hearing my story.

“So you crossed dimensions and were reborn in another world after death? Even without a physical body, dimensional walls shouldn’t be so easily breached. Plus, it’s strange that you didn’t remember your past life from birth, but realized it partway through.”

She continued muttering “Is this really reincarnation?” afterward.

She wasn’t concerned with the meaning of my words, but rather whether remembering a past life was theoretically and practically possible.

Finally, Yerim stood with her mouth agape.

“Wow, wow, a knight who remembers their past life…”

Yerim’s expression resembled those young boys and girls who’d welcome hero parties.

“This is really… Sir Edgar, you’re like a protagonist from a fantasy game.”

I had similar thoughts when I first recalled my past life.

Back then, I was a medieval fantasy free knight who remembered being a modern person.

I imagined using my modern knowledge to become a lord and develop territory,

And dreamed of gaining other abilities besides past life memories to become an imperial general.

When meeting trash nobles, I even considered revolution.

But remembering a past life changed nothing.

Even with modern knowledge, there was little a single free knight could do.

Like ordinary modern people, I only knew how to use scientific developments, not create them.

The modern era had advanced politics, culture, and systems, but I couldn’t share these with anyone, not even closest friends.

They were perfect for getting oneself executed.

Instead, I only became more aware of medieval society’s ignorance and the continent’s filth, making life harder.

I had given up, never expecting to return to my past life’s world.

Here, past life memories were useful.

Just like now, to properly utilize these useful memories, I had no choice but to share my secret with companions.

“Then, you found this place using past life memories too. But, um, you weren’t a gangster in your past life, were you?”

I sighed softly at Yerim’s somewhat frightened question.

To fear gangsters more than knights, symbols of violence.

Yerim could probably handle ordinary gangsters easily now.

Anyway, I shook my head.

“I was just a regular office worker. I was lucky to overhear this location.”

Though that company was established by gangsters, and the location came from piecing together information overheard over years,

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

While I was reassuring Yerim, Hoffman seemed to reach his own understanding.

He summarized my story briefly in his own way.

“It’s complicated, but I think I get the situation. Basically, Sir Knight knows about this world like the people living here.”

It was typical of Hoffman, but a good summary. Cutting away the branches, that was essentially it.

“Well, past life or whatever, it’s good that you know this world well, Sir Knight. Thanks to that we could find places like this. We’ve been doing well thanks to you all this time too.”

“Not gold, but other things. Like books.”

Zahina’s words puzzled me again.

If it was just books, she could take them normally, but planning to use a space expansion pouch…

Could there be a reason she needed to hide such items?

Keeping this small doubt in mind, we left the empty vault.

Perhaps due to obtaining the gold bars, our steps heading south felt lighter.

While Zahina and Yerim remained unchanged, Hoffman moved nimbly as if twenty years younger, even wearing a smile.

“Sir Knight looks happy too. Well, in a normal world this gold would be worth tens of billions. It probably wouldn’t be much different in that world either?”

As Yerim said, gold’s value wasn’t much different in that world. No, it would be even more expensive than this world.

Mining technology was worse there, and mana made it more useful.

But my good mood wasn’t just because of the gold.

I was happy the vault actually existed, and glad to meet old connections.

Apparently, I had hated the president and directors more than I thought.

Seeing their dead bodies brought joy rather than sympathy.

“Or maybe I’m just quite twisted.”

Anyway, confirming their deaths cleared the lingering unease in my heart.

Perhaps that’s why I comfortably collected the president’s documents from the vault corner.

There was no special reason for taking them.

Though useless now, they would contain records of the president’s actions from my past life – perfect for browsing when bored later.

However, the increasing comfort as we headed south wasn’t just due to mood.

The zombie numbers had actually decreased dramatically.

This was incomparable to the safe zone area.

“Could there really be none here?”

Yerim’s eyes widened at the empty streets.

It wasn’t that zombies were avoiding Yerim’s holy power. There simply were no zombies to avoid.

While some zombies remained in the next block, they were trapped inside buildings.

The southern streets seemed empty of zombies except those trapped somewhere.

Seeing this, the party members’ expressions hardened.

I also gave instructions in a stiff tone.

“Let’s go to our destination without rest from now. Everyone hurry.”

The party members moved quickly at my command.

We soon reached our destination, Daejeon Station, and entered the twin buildings beside it.

Though we had to run up dozens of floors, none of the party members would struggle with this height.

“Huff, huff, is it still far? It’s too high.”

Well, except for Yerim.

Still, with the persevering Yerim, we made it to the high-rise rooftop.

As expected, we could see all of southern Daejeon from these twin building rooftops.

Southern Daejeon spread out with Bomun Mountain as backdrop. Above those streets, massive mana rippled.

“Demon King’s army.”

“It’s the Demon King’s army.”

Both Hoffman and I could reach one conclusion seeing that mana.

The Demon King’s army was already in Daejeon.

And I could tell who was leading that army.

Far away in the southern sky, invisible to ordinary people, floated a cloaked skeleton.

I knew that skeleton.

The Demon King’s subordinate and vanguard commander.

The ‘Hiding Lich.’