Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 309: Socialising

As time went on a few people came over to our group, out of curiosity. We engaged in small talk but nothing too political. After a while the princess showed up and formally introduced us.

"Today we have a special guest: Koyuki. She is only in her second year at the Royal Military Academy and has already reached the rank of senior mage. Not only that, she has advanced our understanding of necromancy and commands several tier three undead. One among them is a vampire spellblade."

That introduction changed things. Suddenly we were far more interesting to the gathered nobles. They wanted to see Hatsumi and it felt a lot like the conference again. Some retired officers discussed the potential of undead on the field. It seemed that most saw undead only as fodder and did not care about the health or survival of tier threes. Then again, some of them saw even their soldiers as disposable.

With us being more popular again Leo was back, telling everyone that he too was a necromancer and shared my class. He also seemed to agree a lot with the military people who saw undead as nothing but tools.

I had low expectations as another man approached us. The grey hair showed his advanced age but his body was still in reasonable shape. His uniform showed that he was a colonel.

"So you are one of Gronir's students. How is the old dwarf?" He asked.

"He is fine, sir." I replied.

"Good, good. He was quite the demon on the field back in my day. You should have seen him with his tier three. Ha! Those were the times. Losing that undead hit him quite hard. He lost his taste for battle after that." The man mused.

"He has never talked much about his time in the army." I replied. I also wondered how old Gronir was. Dwarves did live a long time.

"Ah. Well, not my story to tell. So these are your two tier threes? How are they in the field?" The man asked.

"Quite effective. Hatsumi can use her blood magic to form weapons and with her spellblade enhancements she is absolutely deadly in close combat. That allows her to use her fangs if needed. Kaito controls frostfire which has been rather powerful so far." I reported.

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"Frostfire? Hm. I heard Erik say it was not worth specialising in but I guess if you have it as an inborn power it changes things. I have never seen it used in a real battle. But it's good to hear that you are not just using your undead as servants. They are made for battle." The man said.

"They are much more than soldiers, sir." I replied.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

The man looked at the four cats, dressed in their top hats, and frowned. "What's with the cats?"

"They are tier three too." I replied.

"You wasted your mana on cats?" He asked.

"All of them have fought and killed in battle." I said.

The cats nodded.

The man kept staring a bit longer. The cats stared back.

"Hm." He looked at me. "You control six tier three undead."

I smiled. "Yes, I do."

There was something new in the man's eyes; respect. "I see. Keep up the good work, student. And tell Gronir that Ehren said hi."

"Yes, sir." I replied.

The cats saluted. It actually brought a smile to the old man's face as he left.

We did not stay much longer ourselves and went back to our carriage. Derrick decided to stay so we said our goodbyes and thanked him again for his help. As the carriage started rolling I felt relieved.

"That went really well, I think." I said.

"Christa will be free and have a good job. Even better, our involvement is now minimal so there is a smaller chance of others using slaves against us as bargaining chips." Helena added.

"It might still be possible though. Even before Christa, slaves were a potential weakness." Hatsumi pointed out.

"Maybe we can check in on Christa during the next break. I hope she likes the new job." I said.

"I believe the princess would be delighted if you visited her." Hatsumi replied. "I do think this turned out well. Princess Olivia will feel a lot more comfortable if she has someone Koyuki cares about at her side. It strengthens your ties."

"Enough about politics, when will the next ambush happen?" Cassie wondered.

"You are just sad that you were not able to use the Iron Beaks we have with us." Skadi said.

Cassie pouted. "We went through all the trouble to have those cages underneath the carriage."

"I could do with not getting ambushed." I said.

"You could do with not getting hurt." Helena said, while poking me with her finger.

"I have already agreed that I will focus a bit more on defensive magic." I mumbled.

"I will focus on bigger bombs." Cassie said.

"You also need better defenses." Skadi pointed out.

"I am sure the academy will be happy to help you train your defences. Maybe I could talk with the headmaster and suggest some additional training?" Hatsumi wondered.

Cassie's eyes widened. "Oh no, your undead are rebelling!"

"I think the cats are still on our side." Helena stated, while pointing at the lazy felines.

We kept bantering some more on our way back to the hotel, then we enjoyed a nice dinner. Soon it would be time to return to the academy. I was really looking forward to working on the new undead again. The two goblin corpses we had were not the highest quality but they would be great for some new experimentation!