Reborn with a Necromancer System
Chapter 129: Deal with the Devil

Chapter 129: Deal with the Devil

The silence in the cellar felt brittle, like glass on the edge of shattering, as Carter bowed his head low, fingers curled into fists at his sides.

The silence hung between them like a guillotine waiting to fall.

Carter stood over Kai’s bruised and emaciated form, his expression twisted with shame and uncertainty. The torchlight flickered across the cellar walls, illuminating every scar and grime-streaked line on Kai’s face.

"You’ll save her?" Carter asked at last, voice brittle. "You’ll bring the princess back?"

Kai raised his head with effort, eyes bloodshot but still calculating.

"I will," he said slowly. "As long as you do exactly as I say."

Carter shifted uneasily. "What do you mean by that?"

Kai coughed, lips cracking as he tried to smile. "It means I don’t want a loyal knight who’ll suddenly find his morals when I ask for something... practical."

Carter clenched his jaw. "I’m not a fool. I know what you are. Necromancer, the inquisitors said. One who raises the dead. Usurper. Maybe worse."

"Then you know I’m your only option," Kai said. "If she’s dead, gone beyond mortal recall, then I’m the only man alive who can reach into death and drag something back out."

The knight’s shoulders slumped. "I’ve prayed. I’ve paid every healer and cleric I could. Spent months chasing myths. You’re the last name on the list, and I don’t even know if I should have come back."

Kai didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

After a moment, Carter stepped forward and drew a rusted iron key from his coat. "What’s your name, necromancer?"

"We’ll leave pleasantries until-" Kai coughed violently, body convulsing. "Until after you let me down."

Carter nodded with hesitation and slid the key into the manacles. The iron restraints clicked open one by one, releasing their grip on Kai’s shoulders, wrists, and ankles.

Kai slumped forward, groaning as the blood rushed back into his limbs. The cold stone beneath his bare feet might as well have been fire, and he staggered before catching himself against the wall.

But the moment his skin touched the earth, he felt it.

The city’s rats. His undead legion, slumbering in shadow. Shade, waiting patiently. His soul sense unfolded like a predator uncaging itself.

He inhaled slowly, feeling the invisible threads of death reattach themselves to his spirit.

And he wanted to kill Carter. Right then. Right there. He could end it in a breath.

But he didn’t.

’He’ll be worth more alive,’ Kai reminded himself. ’A path into the palace. A pawn that believes he’s holding the reins.’

Kai stood upright and met Carter’s eyes.

"I’ll be taking your soul now."

Carter’s hand went to his blade on instinct. "I-what? You said you’d help-"

"And I will. But only if you give me leverage," Kai said. "Your loyalty means nothing. Your guilt even less. If I’m going to waste time and risk divinity by touching death where she’s fallen, I need something in return."

"And what do you want? My soul on a leash?"

Kai grinned. "Exactly that."

Carter grimaced. "That’s-no. No, that’s not what we agreed."

Kai raised a hand. "We didn’t agree on anything. You made an assumption. I said I’d help. I never said it would be free."

The knight paced away, breathing heavy. "There must be another way. An oath. A pact. Something without stripping me of free will."

Kai tilted his head. "I don’t need a puppet. I need a man who cannot betray me, no matter how noble the reason. Oaths break. Pacts falter. Souls obey."

Carter turned to face him. "And what do you give me in return? If I hand you my soul, what’s stopping you from abandoning her the moment you get what you want?"

Kai stepped forward, slowly, like a wolf circling its prey. "Nothing. Except this-" He paused, eyes glowing faintly with green fire. "If you give me your soul willingly, then I must keep my promise, or your soul will rebel against me. It’s a binding trust. I will engrave the promises upon your soul itself."

Carter frowned. "I’ve never heard of a necromancer bound by honour."

Kai chuckled. "You didn’t even know of necromancers before me, and I’m not bound by honour. I’m bound by structure. The rules I write into your soul are laws. They can cut me too if I break them."

’In theory, at least.’

"And what rules would you write?"

Kai raised a hand and traced glowing glyphs in the air, his voice calm and steady.

---

1. Do my bidding. In return, I will do everything in my power to revive Princess Aliza of Forne.

2. Do not betray me. Not for duty. Not for honour. Not for greed.

3. Should I abandon my efforts to save her without cause, your soul will be released.

---

Carter read the glyphs carefully, eyes narrowed. "Add another. Rule four."

Kai arched a brow. "Oh?"

Carter’s voice turned low. "You are not to raise her corpse unless it is with her soul intact."

Kai blinked, then slowly nodded. "Fair. She wouldn’t be of any use anyway."

Carter frowned, appalled by the statement.

He etched the fourth line:

---

4. I may not reanimate her body unless it is with her true soul, whole and willing.

---

Kai turned to Carter and held out his hand. "Do we have a deal, Knight of Forne?"

Carter stared at him for a long time.

"Very well."

Kai’s eyes flashed. "Soul Manipulation."

The knight arched backward, shuddering as Kai drew out the shimmering thread of his soul, so bright, so heavy with memory and purpose.

"Beautiful.’

[Sovereign Soul Obtained.]

"I know. I knew this man had something going for him! How did the arcane panthers even manage to corner him? Because he had no weapon? Because he was protecting the princess? I wish I knew. The potential this man has, even at his age... Once I revive the princess, I am taking him as my own."

Kai began to etch the rules upon it, the light dimming and reforming around each word.

Once it was done, he pressed the soul back in.

Carter gasped as it returned, dropping to one knee, his breath ragged.

Kai waited, arms crossed.

When the knight looked up, his eyes were still his, but something inside them had changed. Something tethered.

"What now?" Carter asked hoarsely.

Kai stepped back. "Now you serve. Get me into the palace. A worker. A tutor. Anything. I need to be inside."

Carter nodded slowly, standing with effort. "I’ll return when I have your position secured."

Kai leaned against the wall. "Good. And Carter?"

The knight turned.

"I’ll save her. I promise. But if you ever try to betray me in any way..."

Kai’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

"You won’t even know your soul is gone."

He bowed slightly. "Follow me."

---

They emerged upstairs from the cellar into what had once been a farmhouse, long since abandoned, roof sagging, windows shattered. No one would look for a necromancer here. From the outside, it looked like one of the villages just outside the citadel, since Kai could see the citadel walls.

Carter explained that he’d been squatting in the building alone, concealing Kai’s imprisonment out of guilt and desperation.

"You’ll stay here," Carter said. "I’ll return once I’ve secured you a position."

Kai nodded. "I’ll keep my mana still. No necromancy. No tricks. But don’t take long."

"I won’t. I have some sway in the palace."

And then Carter left.

’What is the man’s position in the palace, anyway? Sure, he was Aliza’s protector, but wouldn’t that mean he has a fairly high rank? I’ll need to ask when he comes back.’

---

For two days, Kai remained still. No spells. No whispers, even to Shade. No pushing his control to the rats. The divine gaze still pricked at the back of his skull like invisible needles. He couldn’t risk being caught again.

Instead, he paced. Meditated. Mentally rehearsed every spell he knew, reconfiguring them for palace use. He prepared aliases, identities, fallback escape routes. He catalogued every undead in his inventory, planned their potential upgrades, and sketched an array of runes that might be able to help him restore Aliza, if her soul could even be recovered from the devourer’s realm.

He doubted it. But Carter didn’t need to know that.

Beyond that, if he could restore Aliza...

’I might be able to bring my parents back as well.’

---

Carter returned on the morning of the third day, visibly fatigued but triumphant.

"I’ve secured you a role," he said. "A tutor’s assistant. You’ll teach theoretical magic to the younger royals. It won’t be easy."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "It doesn’t need to be easy. Just close enough."

---

The next day, dressed in plain gray robes and under a false name, Kai entered the gilded gates of Forne’s palace. His new face fit well. Very angular and proud. If he kept his pointed ears, he could be an elf, but those didn’t exist in Imeria.

He shook his head as the light of the sun caused him to wince, the golden locks swaying either side of his head. His eyes, ash grey, looked out to the palace before him.

The halls were opulent but worn, a kingdom clinging to faded grandeur. He passed portraits of monarchs long dead, tapestries depicting wars that had won them this era of fragile peace.

His first lesson involved three children, all too young to fully understand the formulas they recited. He was quiet. Calculating. Harmless.

Until he saw him.

A boy, no older than eight, with a mop of fiery red hair and a mana signature that twisted space like a whirlpool in still water. He spun a toy sphere between his fingers, and it phased in and out of dimensions like it was flickering between rooms.

This magic was not just any magic.

He teleported pebbles around for fun.

It was spacial magic.

Naia, who also used some form of it, was never any help. When explaining it, she only made noises and hand gestures and expected Kai to understand. But someone in the palace might know better.

Kai’s eyes lingered.

Carter, at his side, whispered low. "That’s the youngest prince of Forne. Gerald. Be careful not to stare too long."

But Kai’s mind was already elsewhere.

"Spacial magic," he murmured under his breath.

’If I could study it... tap into Orlin’s dimensional space... I could reach everything he hid from me.’

He smiled politely and turned back to the students.

But inside, plans were already being written.

And the palace, he realised,

was now his to navigate.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.