Lich for Hire

Chapter 102: The Elven Queens Second Ascension

Back in his castle, Ambrose was in excellent spirits as he slowly fused gold coins into his Golden Throne.

He had skimmed nearly three hundred thousand gold from Viscount Letterman. A grand lord was a grand lord—he was far more generous than penniless trash like the Porcupine Knight.

If not for the need for continued cooperation, Ambrose would have been sorely tempted to empty Letterman's treasury outright.

Three hundred thousand gold coins restored the Golden Throne to pristine condition and beyond. Delicate patterns began to emerge across its surface.

They were still too vague to identify, but Ambrose had the hunch that, as long as he continued feeding it gold, the Golden Throne would reveal even more abilities.

"I'm still far too poor," Ambrose muttered.

He opened the Necromantic Codex and sent a message to Black Rose. [Megaman Tiga: Lady Rose, I have uncovered something. That magical contract we discussed earlier may have been imbued by the Elven Queen herself. Once violated, its effects apply to everyone within the corresponding territory.]

Black Rose replied almost immediately. [Black Rose: You are even better informed than I am. I was just about to share my own findings. Aside from the contract itself, the elves are equipping themselves on a large scale with weapons capable of disrupting spell structures. Ordinary defensive magic is completely countered.]

[Megaman Tiga: Large-scale deployment? How? Weapons at that level of enchantment cannot be mass-produced.]

Ambrose was genuinely shocked.

This defied common sense. Enchantment followed fundamental rules. Anti-magic weapons weren't unheard of—some could even suppress a target's spellcasting entirely for a period after striking—but were extraordinarily rare because they required a material unique to the Umbral Depths: whisperwood bark.

Whisperwood was a special plant that naturally generated an anti-magic field. Plucking a single whisperflower would suppress all spells within several meters. However, once removed from the Umbral Depths, whisperwood withered completely. Only a small strip of its most precious bark could be processed and used to forge anti-magic weapons.

Across the entirety of the Umbral Depths, there were perhaps only a handful of mature whisperwood trees. Every few centuries at best, one might grow sufficient bark to craft a true anti-magic weapon.

Other magic-disrupting weapons followed similar principles: the materials required were exceptionally rare, and few such weapons were in open circulation.

Ambrose had assumed that, even with the elves' long history and wealth, stockpiling a hundred such weapons over the years would have been an impressive feat. But Black Rose had mentioned "large-scale deployment." The materials alone would be an insurmountable bottleneck, not to mention the number of alchemists required to forge so many such weapons.

These weren't industrial products that could be created with molds. Even the subtle differences in the metal grain used to forge each sword would require custom adjustments to the corresponding enchantment arrays. After all, these were enchanted weapons.

Even a simple sharpness enchantment could multiply a weapon's value severalfold.

Magical craftsmen, materials, and time—all three factors strictly limited the production of enchanted weapons.

If anti-magic arrows were widely available, rangers would rule the world. Archmages would stand at the peak of power no longer.

Yet Black Rose replied with certainty. [Black Rose: My intelligence is accurate. The Court of the Silver Moon has indeed mastered a technique for the large-scale production of anti-magic weapons. This is why they have embargoed magical materials in recent years. The specifics remain unclear, but these orders all come directly from the Elven Queen.]

Ambrose stroked his chin and fell into thought. After a long pause, he replied, [As far as I know, the Elven Queen was originally a legendary ranger, who later cross-trained as a mage. Lady Rose, do you think it is possible that she has ascended to the legendary realm a second time?]

[Black Rose: A second legendary ascension? The odds of that are even lower than a mortal becoming a god. That sounds far-fetched.]

Ambrose didn't argue. If not for divine favor, he himself could never have achieved a second ascension. But it was precisely because he had done so that he believed the Elven Queen would be capable of it, too. After all, the elven pantheon played favorites even more than the Lord of Dawn did.

Consider, for instance, the standard elven traits alone: beauty, intelligence, longevity, resistance to mental control, near immunity to disease, innate magical affinity, natural bow mastery... And what did humans have?

Could the Elven Queen have become a legendary mage after becoming a legendary ranger? The more Ambrose thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Perhaps she had gained some absurd legendary boon, enabling the elves to outfit themselves with anti-magic weapons on such a scale.

Growing increasingly convinced, Ambrose said, [Megaman Tiga: If we eliminate all impossibilities, what remains must be the truth. Whether or not she truly achieved a second ascension, she is inextricably tied to this matter. We must prepare countermeasures.]

Black Rose frowned. When had this become a "we"?

She was merely doing a favor for Ambrose by gathering intelligence. The undead of the Umbral Depths had no inherent conflict with the elves. Why should her kingdom confront the Court of the Silver Moon?

"Does he really consider me family?" she wondered. "...Actually, maybe he does. He even entrusted me with his phylactery."

Black Rose frowned, unsettled.

She had intended to bind Ambrose emotionally and lure him into working for her in the Umbral Depths. It certainly seemed that some sort of attachment had formed—but now she was the one yoked to solving his problems.

She hesitated and did not reply immediately. Instead, she sent a message to Alabastra. [Black Rose: Let me ask you something. When Gareth fell in love with you, what did he do for you?]

[Pale Little Skeleton: Oho! Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?

[Black Rose: Just curious. Thought I might learn something.]

[Pale Little Skeleton: Nothing, really. He was a Dullahan hunted to the brink by the Lyon Empire. What could he do? I saved him, brought him back to the Dragon Graveyard, rebuilt his body, forged his armor, helped him with...]

She listed her efforts one by one. Gareth sounded like a sugar baby. Alabastra had done all the work in their relationship.

Black Rose frowned more deeply. [Black Rose: Why go to so much trouble? What do you get out of it?]

[Pale Little Skeleton: Love is about giving. It's not a matter of tit-for-tat—or that's what the human novels say, at least. And when someone truly cares for you, you will sense that someone's feelings sooner or later.]

Black Rose frowned again. She supposed it did make sense...

Still, opposing the entire Court of the Silver Moon for him seemed a little costly.

As she hesitated, Ambrose sent her another message. [Megaman Tiga: Lady Rose, it would be best if you stop gathering intelligence on the Court of the Silver Moon. I don't want the elves to suspect you.]

[Black Rose: But you just said "we" had to face this together.]

[Megaman Tiga: I meant that, if I'm ever forced into a corner, I hope you'll let me hide in the Umbral Depths for a few years. Alone, I cannot hope to fight the Court of the Silver Moon. I only plan to use the desert dwarves to teach the elves a lesson and vent a little of their hatred. If the desert dwarves lose, I'll flee. I hope you can be my fallback.]

Black Rose's fingers hovered over the page. She did not reply for a long time.

Was this the concern that Alabastra was talking about?

Eventually, she sent Ambrose another message. [Black Rose: Very well. You will always be welcome.]

She shut the Necromantic Codex, pressed a hand to her shapely chest, and sighed softly. "Undead truly have no hearts."

Then she turned to her attendant and said, "Go to the library. Bring me every book related to vampires."

She swore she would study them thoroughly. All undead lacked heartbeats—so why could vampires retain emotions so vividly, to the point of becoming aroused by their food?

Ambrose, reassured by Black Rose's response, felt much more at ease.

From the beginning, he had never intended for her to fight the elves. That was unrealistic and pointless.

He was a war broker. Giving the elves a bit of trouble was enough. Why burn premium clients in a war of attrition? Every coin Black Rose lost could instead be future revenue for him.

If the Elven Queen truly had achieved a second legendary ascension that allowed for the mass production of anti-magic armament, that wasn't Ambrose's problem. The desert dwarves should be far more worried.

Without hesitation, Ambrose messaged Heki Stone. [Megaman Tiga: Senior, I have a major secret about the elves, priced at two million gold. Ask the desert dwarves if they are interested. This is information that can decide the outcome of a war.]

[Human-Hater: No problem. Two million is nothing. If the intelligence is useful, I'll agree to the deal immediately.]

Seeing the instant reply, Ambrose instead frowned.

Something was wrong. When had this vampire become so generous? And the top-tier gargoyles he had promised earlier had yet to arrive.

Ambrose's intuition for such matters rivaled Alabastra's instinct for unfaithful men.

He probed again. [Megaman Tiga: That's two million gold, to be paid in one lump sum.]

[Human-Hater: Yeah, two million gold. You aren't going to raise the price at the last minute, are you? Just give me the intelligence. I won't short you.]

Something was very suspicious about this vampire.