“What do you mean by that?” Ludwig asked, tensed up.
After all, how would this boy find out that he was an Undead? Did someone tell him? Did the lantern not work? Perhaps he isn’t normal, if he was able to figure out Ludwig’s identity.
Ludwig was about to break his promise to the Innkeeper of not causing any trouble.
“Hoyo, your friend, he talked big about you, when you went out running,” the busboy said smiling.
“Huh?”
“Yes, a few of our patrons seemed to think you were acting up like a fool when you were talking big at the Urbaf young lady. So your friend jumped up to defend you, and he mentioned how you’re called Ludwig the Undead in your academy, a fact and title given to you by the whole academy for battling a Championed Lizardman Boss class with one arm missing and a body full of injuries and still come out on top, you see here, I like how undead are…”
The boy continued rambling and yapping about, without a care in the world completely oblivious to how close to death he was. Ludwig took a deep breath. Thankfully he wasn’t exposed but he really needs to talk to Hoyo to keep his mouth shut. It feels good to have someone covering your back, but this time it was just too close for comfort.
The boy led Ludwig on as he kept on rambling about while he led him to the upper floor of the inn. A few other tenants saw Ludwig, and they too were shocked and disturbed by his current sight. But none of them said a word as they thought that if someone looked like that without having a single ounce of pain showing on their face, then that clearly meant that the blood on him was not his. Everyone made sure to move away from their path as they moved up.
“It’s here,” The busboy said as he knocked on the door.
Soon, Hoyo came out, and saw Ludwig’s appearance. “Holy shit, what happened to you?” Hoyo asked.
“You should see the other guy,” Ludwig joked, “Let me in, I need to wash up,” Ludwig said sighing.
“Come, come,” he said then turned to the busboy, “You still serve food, right?”
“Not really, but let me ask the Innkeeper, ha hates it when one of his customers go to sleep on a hungry stomach, I’ll also prepare your bath, Ludwig the Undead,” the busboy smiled as he left the room entrance.
Ludwig gave an annoyed look to Hoyo who simply smiled awkwardly, “Get in, Kassandra woke up earlier,” Hoyo said.
Ludwig walked in the room and found Kassandra sitting on the bed with a faraway look to her eyes.
“Yo,” Ludwig said.
She turned to Ludwig, then said, “I had the strangest dream,” she said.
“Oh, really?” Ludwig asked.
“Yes, you were in it,” she said.
“Oh, must be one of those,” Hoyo said with a lewd look on his face.
“No, shut up,” Kassandra said slight embarrassment on her face. “Anyway, you were there, I was trapped and bound with chains…”
“Like I said, it must be one of those dreams,” Hoyo teased once again.
Kassandra picked up an apple from a plate next to her and threw it at Hoyo who skillfully dodged it.
“Okay, I won’t interrupt,” he said.
“Anyways,” she said giving Hoyo the ‘ill kill you look,’ then looked back at Ludwig, “There was this vile man who captured me and others. Right above us, was the mouth of a slimy grotesque and vile looking entity that would slowly consume the bound people. And then Ludwig came out and fought against the vile man who seemed to be worshipping this entity…” Kassandra shook her head, “It’s hard to remember the details, but in what I saw, you almost died…” she said, “But the strangest thing is, you looked exactly like this, blood and all, though you were missing an arm in my dream…”
‘Her soul must have seen the fight. But there are more details to her dream than what actually happened… and if she did see me fighting then she must have seen me use necromancy…’
“I see, well, you’re partially right,” Ludwig said as he sat down. He then began explaining all that happened, and how he found himself in a den of Djinns and had to fight his way to liberate the souls from the ritual. He downplayed his part significantly to make it show as if the Urbaf girl did all the work, he had no need to get another nickname or for them to further cement the ‘Ludwig the Undead’ title.
“I see, so when I was in that… soul form, I was able to see figments of reality and what happened, though I could swear I saw you lose an arm there…”
“Yeah, remember it might have been a mix of dream and reality,” Ludwig said.
“How come?” Hoyo asked, “What does dreaming have to do with any of this,” Hoyo asked.
“I read somewhere that dreams are a translation of reality made by the subconscious. So remember when I lost my arm to the lizardman, your subconscious must have added it to what you saw. Since I still have my arm right here,” Ludwig flexed his arm.
“That’s… true, it really didn’t feel like a dream though,” she said, but didn’t want to press the matter any further.
Someone then knocked on the door.
“Your bath is ready,” the busboy said from behind the door, “Please follow me to wash up.”
Ludwig excused himself and followed after the busboy. He was led to the upper floor where he found a large wooden tank that was steaming hot. Towles and a set of black tower academy clothes were already there.
“Where’d you get these?” Ludwig asked.
“Oh, a man came after you and handed these over to the innkeeper, along with a pouch of gold. He had a scary face, and looked really annoyed doing so…”
‘Must be either Sebas or Evan. Van Dijk must have made them do this, good, petty revenge for taking my money, but it’s still not nearly enough to avenge my own death at their hands…’
Ludwig hadn’t forgotten how those two were the cause of his current appearance and predicament. How they killed him brutally so, and carved every organ of his and then turned him to an undead.
He didn’t forget, nor would he ever do so.
But true revenge needs a lot of planning, and he hasn’t even begun preparing for that.